Posted Monday, May 22, 2006 9:18 AM | Contributed by Jeff
Cedar Fair, L.P. today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of the Paramount Parks. Cedar Fair, L.P. will acquire the stock of Paramount Parks, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation for a cash purchase price of $1.24 billion.
I'm pretty sure PKD markets to that area, but I'm not sure about Dorney. Either way, it is kind of a stretch if someone's making a decision between those specific parks when SFA, BGW, Hershey, etc. are options as well of course.
Danny, they did point out that capital expenditures might require some borrowing which Cedar Fair hasn't had to do in the past. They did state that they hope to contine their annual distribution increase (19 years and counting) but the sense was that this might be more of a challenge now.
Dick pointed out to a naysayer that Cedar Point, the flagship, is in what is at this time an economically depressed area of the country. He is touting the geographic diversity of the company now.
He believes it will take 3-5 years for a financial payoff to be realized...which is in line with what they experienced with Dorney and Knott's.
Rob, I was using Safari, which seems to have had similar issues as Firefox with me, so I'll try something else if I have any issues on the 1 PM call. Thanks!
It makes sense to me that the Nickelodeon license is included. But here is a question for those with more insight in this business: Is this more beneficial for the park or for Nick?
Example: The Beastie is now named "The Fairly Odd Coaster". It seems that the park will be paying for the naming rights, but Nick will presumably gain because of increased "brand awareness". For example, I'd barely given "The Fairly odd Parents" more than 2 seconds thought. But after spending 25 minutes in line last Saturday, I can now at least recognize the characters. Ditto for "Avatar".
I would think that the party with the most to gain from the Nick theming is Nick. But then again I'm not a 4 year old begging my parents to take me to PKI to ride the "Dora rides".
Wow! This is really great news! My hat is off to Mr. Kinzel! He saw an opportunity to grab a park that to me has been "in limbo" so to speak and will be making significant changes which go a long way! Next season, the park will be cleaner, better managed, and when repairs need to be made, they will be made quickly. I love the idea of CF buying Paramount Parks.
I am betting the Paramount name is licensed as well for the next 4 years. I am guessing that Cedar Fair probably will have the rights to be able to use the Paramount name elsewhere if they pay the proper fees.
Excluding Wyandot Lake, the Oklahoma parks, and one of the Waterworld parks (which are all being sold), Six Flags owns or operates 26 parks (assuming my quick count was right). This includes SFNO. Cedar Fair is now going to operate 17 (18 if you include Star Trek: The Experience). Kind of amazing.