News and Articles
Profits double for Andrew Lloyd Webber
09 Jan 2013
Revenues at Really Useful Investments rose 10pc to £161m in the 12 months to
June 30, according to documents filed at Companies House, while pre-tax
profits climbed 98pc to £9m. Operating profits were 38pc higher at £15.3m.
Lord Lloyd Webber and fellow directors said the company had enjoyed “higher
sales in the theatres, driven by higher demand for the productions during
2012”. Really Useful Investments also benefited from the sale of London’s
Palace Theatre, which Lord Lloyd Webber used to pay down some of the group’s
debts and finance the refurbishment of the London Palladium. Really Useful
Investments owns a string of London theatres, and managed the rights to 16
musicals including Evita and Lord Lloyd Webber’s staging of The Sound of
Music, which it licenses to venues around the world.
In the 12 months to June 30 it paid out £1.49m in royalties to Two Knights
Rights, another company controlled by Lord Lloyd Webber, marking a 12pc
increase on its payout to the firm the previous year. However, strong ticket
sales in 2012 did not trigger as much of a windfall for Lord Lloyd Webber as
might have been expected.
The theatre chief took £11.5m out of the company in 2010 in the form of an
advance on royalty payments, relating to a deal with Universal Publishing
which extends until 2016. Last year, his musicals and other rights brought
in £838,000 of royalty payments that have been written off against the
advance, compared to £5.4m the previous year.
