Vista takes supporting role at the NZFC

Murray Holdaway, chief executive of Vista Entertainment Solutions, is a fan of the silver screen. Photo / Richard Robinson

Murray Holdaway is an unlikely star of the silver screen. Affable and laid back, he is a regular at international film industry events such as trade shows; but unlike Sir Peter Jackson he is not a regular on the red carpet.

The chief executive of the cinema analytics and software company Vista Group International was on the stage in Auckland last week where he was the star billing for the New Zealand Film Commission.

The company has promised more than $500,000 for an initiative, called the Vista Foundation, with ongoing support to film industry players helping them learn business skills in film-making. The inaugural programme is promoting marketing.

The patron of the foundation is respected and successful veteran film-maker Roger Donaldson.

Vista is not involved in the glamour side of the film biz, it's about being a back-office box-office star.

It is a promising Kiwi firm offering software and analytics for the exhibition sector formed by Holdaway and his software designer colleagues, which has become the largest firm of its type with a 37 per cent share of cinema ticketing software and operates in 60 countries.

Few knew about it before it floated on the NZX last year at $2.35 with a market capitalisation of $188 million. Five months later, the share price has risen to $4.50 and it has market capitalisation of nearly $360 million.

The company provided its first-half results on Friday. Sales climbed 55 per cent on rapid growth in its core cinema software division.

Vista Group has been held up as one of the most promising of the companies that floated shares on the NZX last year. However, it is a relatively small company that's expanding into a role in a global niche market - and globally the entertainment sector faces widespread changes, especially with the growth of online home entertainment options.

Cinema has survived many predictions of doom from new technology ever since the arrival of television.

Holdaway believes the future is still bright for the sector because it offers a viable, reasonably priced dating option to drinking and dining.

In 2013 the Chinese cinema market became the first outside the US to generate more than US$3 billion in annual ticket sales, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. China offered opportunities but the company was also looking at aiming at exhibitors in Indonesia, Vietnam and Brazil, Holdaway said.

Vista recently established its first software with an exhibitor in Russia but he says the biggest chains are still based in the US. On February 11, Vista Group signed conditional agreement to acquire US-based Ticketsoft.

The planned acquisition expands the company's client base in the North American market and accelerates the move to offer additional, complementary services.

Vista's core business, Vista Entertainment Solutions, will increase its US client base through the provision of a broader software offering to Ticketsoft customers.