Cedar Fair revenue, attendance and EBITDA down in full-year results
Posted
Cedar Fair’s operations generated full-year net revenues of $916.1 and net income of $35.4 million, or $0.63 per diluted limited partner (LP) unit. In 2008, the Company achieved net revenues of $996.2 million and reported net income of $5.7 million, or $0.10 per diluted LP unit. Adjusted EBITDA, which management believes is a meaningful measure of the Company’s park-level operating results, decreased 15.7% to $299.9 million from $355.9 million a year ago. See the attached table for a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net income.
Included in the 2009 adjusted EBITDA of $299.9 million is approximately $5.6 million of cash costs related to the proposed merger with affiliates of Apollo Global Management. In addition, the 2009 results reflect a $9.0 million settlement of a California class-action lawsuit and a $2.0 million settlement of a licensing dispute with Paramount Pictures. Excluding these non-recurring charges, our adjusted EBITDA for 2009 would have totaled $316.5 million, down $39.4 million, or 11%, from 2008.
The decrease in revenues and adjusted EBITDA is a result of a 1.6 million-visit, or 7%, decrease in attendance to 21.1 million guests in 2009. “The decrease in attendance was primarily the result of a sharp decline in group sales business, which was negatively affected by the poor economy; a decrease in season pass visits due to a decline in season pass sales during the year; and poor weather, particularly cooler than normal temperatures throughout much of the season in both our northern and southern regions,” said Dick Kinzel, Cedar Fair’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “During this same period average in-park guest per capita spending decreased 1%, or $0.57. Out-of-park revenues, which represent the sale of hotel rooms, food, merchandise and other complementary activities located outside the park gates, decreased 7%, or $7.3 million, between years, due primarily to lower occupancy rates at most of our hotel properties.”
Read the entire press release from Cedar Fair.
I'm not one bit surprised. More economic downturn for this area, more job losses, and they kept raising their prices.
Brandon James
Cedar Point Employee 2006-2009
CF is still profitable, in the millions. I'll never understand why business feel that they have failed if they have a worse year than the one before it.
Double-digit unemployment rates will cause theme parks to make less money. When the economy gets better, the parks will bounce right back.
Or we could all just PANIC!
-Travis
www.youtube.com/TSVisits
When you've got a big pile of debt coming due, profit is relative.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
Disney's Theme Park revenues were "flat" while CF's were down over 8%. One of them adjusted to the poor economic conditions, the other did not.
Funny how when they want the buy out to go through, the press release is a lot less sugar coated. :)
What was the $9 million California class action suit? I thought maybe the PP incident or the Xcelerator incident? But why would that be class action?
-Matt
Attendance down, per cap down. Gee, who couldn't see that coming?
I think you are right Matt. This release was written with a very specific agenda in mind.
SEC isn't really a fan of sugar coating with public companies. Isn't the year end earnings report pretty much just reporting numbers/financials? Were the prior quarter reports much better?
Dear Cedar Fair,
I am ready to help raise per caps and fill hotel rooms. Let me know when you lower the price to something more realistic.
Sincerely,
Pagoda
LostKause said:
CF is still profitable, in the millions. I'll never understand why business feel that they have failed if they have a worse year than the one before it.Double-digit unemployment rates will cause theme parks to make less money. When the economy gets better, the parks will bounce right back.
Or we could all just PANIC!
let me put it in a simple equation for you:
FUN made 35Million in Net Income. How many years does it take to pay off $4Billion in loans, at $35 million a year?
or to put it in terms the average person can relate to,
After all your income and expenses and payments last year, you have $35 left over, how many years will it take to pay off your loan of $4,000
(and yes, I know Net Income isn't the same as cash flow but let's keep the scenario simple)
^ the better question is "How many years does it take to pay off $1.6 bil in loans with a cash flow of $300 mil per year?"
Let's keep the scenario realistic. Where does your $4b figure come from?
This Isn't A Hospital--It's An Insane Asylum!
my mistake completely. My head was somewhere else when I typed that.
Should read $1.6 billion.
What this tells me is that any one of these parks would be fine individually, but because they are part of this large public company, they all now share a common problem.
Let's not forget, this year the money that would have been paid out as dividends will be available to put toward paying the debt. $1.90 per unit times how many million units?
What this tells me is that any one of these parks would be fine individually, but because they are part of this large public company, they all now share a common problem.
This was true of the Six Flags parks pre-bankruptcy, as well.
There are about 55 million outstanding units so cash available from not paying the $1.90/unit dividend is about $105 million. Not sure if that will be enough reduced leverage to refinance.
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