Half year results for multinational exhibition group IT International Theatres were hit by weak results in its home Israeli market and the strengthening of the US dollar against the currencies of its developing Central European operations.

While revenues increased a fraction to $33.8m (compared with $32.8m), the first half showed losses of $533,000 compared with profits last time of $2.16m.

The company - which should not be confused with ITI Holdings, a conglomerate which operates the Multikino cinema chain in Poland - said that the results benefited from the first-time contributions of its two new complexes in Katowice and Ruda Slonska, Poland. The figures do not take into account contributions from the four loss-making Ster Century multiplexes it bought after the January-June accounting period.

The company said that in the second quarter a 15% currency movement increased its financing costs by $2.2m.

CEO, Mooky Greidinger said: "the continuous unrest [in Israel] has unfortunately contributed negatively to our results in the second quarter. But looking at the third quarter performance, we continue to grow and strengthen our position in Central Europe, while hoping for improvement in Israel, which we saw starting in July and August. I am very proud of our team that brought the company to the number one position in Central Europe, operating over 200 screens after less than four years of operation".