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SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (SEAS) Corporate Thread


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With Six Flags I'm not surprised, to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Cedar Fair or even Disney showed slight interest - it makes great business sense that anytime your competition is up for sale to take a look. Doesn't mean they have intentions of buying but it makes perfect sense to look around to know the market.

 

Regardless of who purchases it or if/when it goes public things will change - as they always do when shareholders are involved. I work for another company owned by Blackstone and there has been some talks about going public and about the many changes that would happen by going through that process. Six Flags may sound "bad" but shareholders can stall a lot of things as well.

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This is a BAD idea for both parties. Six Flags is just recovering from their last round of the "Standard Oil" strategy, going right back into will be a disaster again. Not to mention that this will lead to having two parks in San Antonio with both SFFT and Sea World San Antonio. It will use up their financial resources that need to be used on fixing what they already have on the purchases and will ensure that the razor thin budget that Six Flags uses for all parks (excluding SFMM) will be used on all Sea World and Busch Gardens brand parks.

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I think SF knows how high quality the parks are, and they obviously don't have what it takes to maintain it. But that's not going to stop them.

 

 

-SF buys Sea World Parks & add SF management

-Profits will still soar at first, due to Busch management

-Once SF management becomes more enforces, THAT'S when they'll get it.

 

the Busch parks are HIGH quality (for the most part). Unless SF magically is able to maintain the parks, I can see an attendance drop.

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^Attendance for the Six Flags chain has risen from 23.3 million chain wide in 2009 to 25.6 (projected) in 2012 according to an investor release from last month. Let's stop acting like Six Flags instantly means death for any park they touch. This isn't the same broke Six Flags from a few seasons ago. Yes, it would require them to add more debt to buy the parks (which is why I don't see them going through with the purchase), but they are in a much better financial shape now.

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We know that that Apollo is a scavenger wanting to pay the lowest price possible in a partnership with Six Flags. We also know that stock values for theme park cos are actually doing ok in terms of being in an upward trend for the most part

 

I think Six Flags/ Apollo are just drooling at the chance to make a horrible offer if the IPO’s projected value doesn’t meet expectations or falls through. I doubt that will happen and that we’ll most likely see Sea World Parks go public.

 

Maybe I misread something but I thought the Six Flags and Apollo offers are separate - not a partnership. In regards to them making a horrible offer - I think it is the other way around. With the dual-track approach Sea World is looking to create competition between investors and companies interested to achieve a higher value - I wouldn't be surprised if someone at Sea World leaked the Apollo/SF news on purpose to get investors talking.

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^Attendance for the Six Flags chain has risen from 23.3 million chain wide in 2009 to 25.6 (projected) in 2012 according to an investor release from last month. Let's stop acting like Six Flags instantly means death for any park they touch. This isn't the same broke Six Flags from a few seasons ago. Yes, it would require them to add more debt to buy the parks (which is why I don't see them going through with the purchase), but they are in a much better financial shape now.

A significant part of the difference is the economy. Although the current people are a bit better, they have hardly transformed the parks quality to being anything close to the level that SeaWorld is known for being. All they have to do is buy SeaWorld out and before long, it will be a repeat without much effort. They could have a new Six Flags Worlds of Adventure (take 2) in San Antonio. While I am sure the Busch brand parks would decline I doubt they would be the first to fail. It would likely be again that the smaller & older parks would be the ones whom would fail due to lack of proper investment (but I am sure that SFMM would stay their number one investment effort).

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SFWOA happened because they took a small/medium sized park, spent well over $100 million on the property in just two seasons by adding 5 coasters, waterpark expansion, and buying the neighbor, and cut their potential admission revenue in half at the same time by combining all the parks at one time. Throw in really crappy operations and you have a recipe for disaster. Outside of Disney/Universal parks, I don't think there is a single park in America than can get an actual return on a $100 million investment. That wouldn't happen in San Antonio if for some strange reason this actually goes through.

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^Attendance for the Six Flags chain has risen from 23.3 million chain wide in 2009 to 25.6 (projected) in 2012 according to an investor release from last month. Let's stop acting like Six Flags instantly means death for any park they touch. This isn't the same broke Six Flags from a few seasons ago. Yes, it would require them to add more debt to buy the parks (which is why I don't see them going through with the purchase), but they are in a much better financial shape now.

Better financial shape does not equal better quality product.

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The quality of Six Flags today isn't overall better than they were from 1998 (the buy out) until Burke/Story were ousted in 2005? Sure, it's not Busch/Universal/Disney quality, but given the price difference between at the gates at those parks to Six Flags, I can't really fault them for it.

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Oh hell no. NO Six Flags and NO Apollo. They are both equally scary. It would ruin the Sea World and Busch Garden's brand. Ick. Yuck. And Six Flags contributed to the demise of one Sea World park (indirectly by selling it to Cedar Fair?)

 

I was afraid of something like this when they sold Anheiser Busch back a bit ago.

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Sure, it's not Busch/Universal/Disney quality,

And that's the point. Nobody cares how much cash SF has in the bank. Their philosophy for running amusement parks has no business even sitting at the same lunch table as the SW parks.

 

But they've even stated that their philosophy is based on running a regional based them park company. We really have no way of knowing if they would treat destination parks the same way (and I really doubt we ever will know).

Based on what I read up on Apollo during their attempt to takeover CF I really doubt the parks are in their price range either. I seem to recall they liked buying companies that weren't doing so well (CF was not doing well at the time), and attempting to essentially flip them pretty quickly. Sea World is doing too well at the moment to really fit that model.

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Being a part of the the SFO to SFWOA team, I witnessed and heard the night and day observations of the SeaWorld cast turned to SF members. They hated it. And I agreed. Service and Quality tanked. This was 2000. I became a victim in the 2001 season when they cut staff and I lost my costumed character job. I then went to CP to be a ride host. At CP, i learned efficiency, quality and cleanliness. At Disney, I learned greatness. It has been 6 years since I have been to a SF park (SFMM), so I personally don't know what they are doing now. What I have been reading is that they have gotten better since 2007.

 

Now lets talk business. If SF were to purchase SeaWorld, THEY WOULD BE STUPID TO REBRAND THE SEAWORLD PARKS!! I think we are all in agreeance with that. I can see Apollo coming into the picture with SF on a deal. Apollo is the money and SF is the management team, just like how the hotel chains work. It can work.

 

But I agree with everyone: For Heaven Sake, God, do not let SF and Apollo buy SeaWorld!!!!! I will make sure that makes the petitions during mass tomorrow. The rumor about this story leaking to drive a higher price for the IPO makes sense. I guess we will wait and see.

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Then I would be fine with Apollo buying it. They are just interested in making money. When they bought Harrah's (which became Caesars) they didn't change anything. I can see SF changing things and F-ing everything up. But it would be cool for SF to acquire more parks. Makes it more economical for us Theme Park junkies.

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Then I would be fine with Apollo buying it. They are just interested in making money.

 

Making money could mean:

Less capital improvments

Less staff

Less maintenance

Higher prices

 

I just don't trust Apollo.

 

I share Larry's concern. If they're about making money in the short term, then bailing out, that would be terrible for the SeaWorld parks.

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  • 1 month later...

From Screamscape:

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment - (2/22/13) While Blackstone is being courted by various groups for a possible sale of the SeaWorld Entertainment parks, Blackstone is apparently favoring going ahead with the initial plan to take the company public with an IPO at the moment. Or in other words... the interested potential buyers just haven’t floated a number with enough zeros at the end to raise Blackstone’s eyebrow yet. Initial reports were that Apollo and Six Flags were interested, and according to Bloomberg, Apollo and another group named Onex Corp. apparently did enter bids so far, while a team from Garlyle Group and Advent International Corp were interested, but have yet to make an offer.

At least Six Flags is out of the picture for now.

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  • 1 month later...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-03/blackstone-said-to-plan-moving-ahead-on-seaworld-ipo-this-month.html

 

Blackstone Group LP (BX) is moving ahead with the initial public offering of SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (SEAS) as soon as this month after rejecting takeover bids for the theme-park operator, said a person familiar with the matter.

 

Blackstone will probably begin marketing the sale to investors in the last two weeks of April, said the person, who asked not to be named as the process is private. Apollo Global Management LLC (APO) and Onex Corp. each made bids for Orlando-based SeaWorld, people with knowledge of the matter said in February.

 

The IPO would be at least the second for a Blackstone portfolio company this year as the world’s largest buyout firm takes advantage of investor optimism, which has buoyed equity markets to record highs. Blackstone peers such as Apollo, Carlyle Group LP and Warburg Pincus LLC also are readying holdings for public debuts as they begin to exit some of their biggest investments.

 

Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for New York-based Blackstone, declined to comment, as did Charles Zehren, a spokesman for Apollo at Rubenstein Associates Inc. A representative at Toronto-based Onex didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

 

SeaWorld filed for a U.S. IPO last year using a placeholder amount of $100 million, filings show. The company may raise $500 million in the offering, people familiar with the matter said in December. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are leading the sale.

 

IPO Window

 

IPOs in the U.S. raised $8.9 billion from the beginning of 2013 through March, 44 percent more than a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as record highs in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index spurred companies and their owners to sell new shares.

 

U.S. initial offers this year have handed buyers an average gain of 23 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s compelled companies such as Warburg Pincus’s Bausch & Lomb Holdings Inc., Madison Dearborn Partners LLC’s CDW Corp. and Bain Capital LLC and TPG Capital’s Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc. to file IPO plans since January.

 

Blackstone took control of SeaWorld after agreeing in 2009 to buy Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s (ABI) amusement-park business in a deal then valued at as much as $2.7 billion. The company operates almost a dozen amusement parks in states such as Florida, California and Texas and competes with Walt Disney Co. (DIS) and Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (SIX)

 

SeaWorld Valuation

 

Six Flags trades at about 13.6 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the 12 months through December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s also the median of a basket of comparable SeaWorld peers, data compiled by Bloomberg show. If SeaWorld were valued at the same rate, it would have an enterprise value of about $5.36 billion.

 

Revenue at SeaWorld has swelled 19 percent since 2010 to $1.42 billion after attendance climbed and the average amount customers spent rose. Capital expenditures have grown too, climbing 60 percent over the same period as SeaWorld revamped parks and added attractions such as Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin. SeaWorld’s capital spending is equal to about 49 percent of its Ebitda. That compares with about 28 percent for Grand Prairie, Texas-based Six Flags.

 

Blackstone recouped some of its initial investment in SeaWorld, as the theme-park operator paid out a $500 million special dividend to its owners last year, filings show. Blackstone expects an IPO to yield better returns over time than a possible sale, said one person.

 

Pinnacle’s Success

 

The buyout firm has already benefited from an offering last month for Pinnacle Foods Inc. (PF), the maker of Hungry-Man dinners and Duncan Hines cake mix. The Parsippany, New Jersey-based company sold shares at the top of the proposed price range on March 27 and had surged 17 percent from its debut level through yesterday.

 

Fellow buyout firms are looking to duplicate that success. New York-based Apollo’s Evertec LLC, which offers transaction- processing services in Latin America and the Caribbean, is scheduled to price its IPO April 11, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Bausch & Lomb filed for an IPO March 22 after efforts to sell the company privately were said to falter.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-08/seaworld-raises-amount-sought-in-initial-offer-to-500-million.html

 

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (SEAS), the aquatic theme-park operator owned by Blackstone Group LP, boosted the amount it plans to raise from an initial public offering to $500 million.

 

The company disclosed the new placeholder amount in a regulatory filing today, without setting a specific price range. Orlando-based SeaWorld filed for a U.S. IPO with a $100 million placeholder amount in December.

 

Blackstone, the world’s biggest private-equity firm, is moving ahead with the IPO as soon as this month after rejecting takeover bids for the theme-park operator, a person familiar with the matter said last week. Apollo Global Management LLC (APO) and Onex Corp. each made bids for Orlando-based SeaWorld, people with knowledge of the matter said in February.

 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are leading the IPO for the theme-park company. SeaWorld plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SEAS.

 

Blackstone took control of SeaWorld after agreeing in 2009 to buy Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s (ABI) amusement-park business in a deal then valued at as much as $2.7 billion. SeaWorld, which competes with Walt Disney Co. (DIS) and Six Flags Entertainment Corp., runs almost a dozen amusement parks in states such as Florida, California and Texas.

Edited by jedimaster1227
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