SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (SEAS) Corporate Thread

[jedimaster1227]

^Sea World Gold Coast is a Village Roadshow park, not owned by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment or Miral, who is responsible for the Yas Island theme parks.

[Hilltopper39]

This may not be true but it seems like I remember reading somewhere that the coaster shown is going to be a clone of Cheetah Hunt, which is awesome if true.

This is one of the more interesting projects in the world to me right now. I don't have any idea what kind of attractions or exhibits this place will have but a modern marine life park has the potential to be a fun take on what we've come to know as the the typical  experience. Really interested to see how this place turns out, also will be interesting to see if this concept is scalable in some way such that SeaWorld could potentially bring a similar experience to other markets around the world, if this is successful. 

[jedimaster1227]

Miral and SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment have announced that SeaWorld Abu Dhabi will feature the world's largest aquarium. The construction of the first international SeaWorld park is currently 64% complete!

SeaWorld Abu Dhabi on Yas Island Set to Feature the World’s Largest Aquarium

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/seaworld-abu-dhabi-on-yas-island-set-to-feature-the-worlds-largest-aquarium-301353556.html

• The aquarium at the marine life theme park will be home to 68,000 marine animals including, sharks, schools of fish, manta rays and sea turtles
• Construction of the mega-development is 64% complete
• SeaWorld Abu Dhabi joins SeaWorld’s 55-year commitment to supporting marine rescue, research, education and conservation
• Yas SeaWorld Research and Rescue Center to become first of its kind in UAE

Miral, Abu Dhabi's leading curator of magnetic experiences, in partnership with SeaWorld® Parks & Entertainment, announced today significant progress on the construction of SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, the next generation of marine life theme parks and Yas Island's latest mega-development.  The marine-life park, which is set to feature the world's largest and most expansive marine aquarium and the new Yas SeaWorld® Research and Rescue Center, is currently 64% complete.

On track for completion in 2022, recent major construction milestones include the completion of the primary steel erection and near finalisation of the envelope enclosure of the marine-life park. Additionally, the structure's façade is currently in progress, as well as over 70% of the acrylic panels installed across the park.   

SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, once complete, is set to be home to the world's largest and most expansive marine-life aquarium, containing 25 million litres of water and housing more than 68,000 marine animals, including sharks, schools of fish, manta rays and sea turtles. A main focal view of the aquarium will present visitors with the "Endless Vista", an impressive 20m tall vertical window across multiple levels revealing stunning aquatic scenes.

Building off SeaWorld's extensive research and rescue expertise, the Yas SeaWorld Research and Rescue Center will act as an advanced knowledge hub focusing on indigenous Gulf and marine life ecosystems. The facility will be located adjacent to the aquarium and theme park, and will be the first dedicated marine research, rescue, rehabilitation and return center in the UAE. It will integrate with SeaWorld's ongoing efforts related to research, rescue, conservation, and education. Accessible to visitors by reservation, the Research and Rescue Center will also demonstrate the work from resident scientists and researchers, enriching guests' knowledge of aquatic animals, and offering tailored educational learning programs for both local and international schools and touring groups.

Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi, CEO of Miral said: "We are delighted to be partnering with SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment in developing this next generation marine life park, that is set to feature the world's largest marine aquarium and the UAE's first dedicated research center to study and care for animals. This is another major addition to Yas Island's existing immersive experiences and attractions, and a testament to achieving our vision of positioning the island as a top global tourism destination for residents and visitors alike."

Visitors to SeaWorld Abu Dhabi will have the opportunity to interact with one of the most diverse populations of animals featured in any marine-life park, globally. The "Endless Ocean" themed aquarium encapsulates the expanse and scale of the marine display for guests and is one element featured within a unified "One Ocean" experience, interlinking six distinct realms throughout the marine-life park. The "One Ocean" narrative will augment the park's ability to simulate the natural habitats of different species, living harmoniously as they would in the wild. Guests will be encouraged to explore these natural underwater environments via immersive storytelling techniques and the latest cutting-edge technologies, further deepening an appreciation and understanding of ocean life.

Marc Swanson, CEO of SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, said: "We are honored to partner with Miral to bring SeaWorld's unforgettable guest experiences and our important mission to Yas Island and the region. SeaWorld Abu Dhabi joins our North American parks in our mission and commitment to conservation efforts worldwide. We have hundreds of professionals focused on animal care, rescue and rehabilitation, conservation education, habitat protection, and species research and we are excited to see the Yas SeaWorld® Research and Rescue Center further expand SeaWorld's positive global impact with the vitally important marine life conservation efforts in the region."

Spanning the floor area of 183,000 square meters (m2), across five indoor levels, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi's design leverages SeaWorld's more than 55 years of experience in marine research, conservation, and animal welfare.

SeaWorld Abu Dhabi further supports Miral's vision to position Yas Island as one of the top global tourist destinations. Its unique portfolio of attractions and experiences on the island includes many world firsts and record-breaking attractions; Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Yas Waterworld, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi and CLYMB Abu Dhabi.

Miral and SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment are both committed to exploring long-term sustainability goals for the mega-development with further details to be announced in due course.*

*Notes to Editors:

Estidama, Pearl 2 Rating:

SeaWorld Abu Dhabi will have a Pearl 2 rating as recognized under Estidama – a UAE owned building design methodology and framework for measuring sustainability performance. The program is a key aspect of the "Abu Dhabi Vision 2030" drive to build the Abu Dhabi emirate according to innovative green standards.

The Pearl Building Rating system was established in 2010 and is mandatory in Abu Dhabi, with all buildings requiring a status certification of Pearl 1 Rating and all government-funded buildings must achieve a minimum of Pearl 2 Rating.

Tabreed District Cooling Appointment:

The National Central Cooling Company PJSC (DFM: Tabreed), the UAE's National Central Cooling Company, has been appointed to provide district cooling services to ensure the park will benefit from a reliable and energy-efficient source of cooling.

A cooling capacity of 7,500 refrigeration tons will be delivered with a total concession capacity of 15,000 refrigeration tons (RT).

As part of the agreement, Tabreed will build a newly dedicated plant by 2022 at the SeaWorld Abu Dhabi site, with the development benefiting from a reliable, technologically advanced and sustainable source of cooling interconnected to the Yas Island centralised cooling scheme operated by Tabreed.

[SharkTums]

Wow! I hadn't been following this but it looks great! So happy to see some progress on the UAE projects. 

[Hilltopper39]

Yeah I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out, everything about it so far looks spectacular.

Also curious to see what other attractions the park ends up having. I'm sure the one coaster pictured won't be the only "ride" but interested to see if they have some unique dark rides, or rides incorporating animal exhibits, maybe some kind of a flying theatre? As many models of Flying theatres as there are these days I'm kind of surprised that one of the SeaWorld parks in America hasn't gotten one yet.

[jedimaster1227]

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment's newest COO Tom Iven has resigned from the company less than two months after taking the job.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/seaworld-coo-tom-iven-resigns-after-about-40-days-271628763712

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. said Tom Iven, its chief operating officer of about 40 days, is resigning for personal reasons, effective Thursday.

The theme-park company said Mr. Iven will continue to assist the company through Aug. 20. He joined the company in late June from Six Flags Entertainment Corp.

Mr. Iven succeeded Walter Bogumil, who was terminated after about three years with the company.

Their departures mark the latest in the string of leadership changes in recent years at the company. In April 2020, Chief Executive Sergio Rivera resigned from the company after being in the post for about five months. Gustavo Antorcha, Mr. Rivera's predecessor, resigned from SeaWorld in September 2019, seven months after taking the helm at the Orlando, Fla., company.

[hoppedup]

Is there any reason BGW calls their passes memberships and all the other parks call them annual passes? I checked the fine print on all the sites and they all say that if you are on EZPay, it will renew every month at 1/12th the cost of the pass after 12 months unless you cancel.

Might head to Texas for my next pass. 

[larrygator]

SeaWorld Makes $3.4 Billion Takeover Bid for Cedar Fair

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/seaworld-makes-3-4-billion-160741492.html

As reported by Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. has offered to buy amusement park owner Cedar Fair for around $3.4 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.

SeaWorld made a bid of about $60 per unit in cash for Sandusky, Ohio-based Cedar Fair, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The companies are working with advisers on the proposal, the people said.

Deliberations are ongoing, and it’s unclear if the approach will lead to a transaction, the people said. A representative for Cedar Fair declined to comment, while a spokesperson for SeaWorld didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

And I thought SEAS was struggling financially.  I don't see CF selling at this price.  I don't think shareholders will approve it and CF is supposedly considering bringing back the dividend, which would probably also drive the share price back to $60.

 

[swfan1988]

Here we go again...let the speculation begin...

I was gonna post about this in the Cedar Fair Corporate thread since I couldn't find the SeaWorld Corporate Thread, thanks larrygator!

Apparently they stopped trading (at lease momentarily) of CF stock pending news so we may have more word very soon.

For the record...I have NO CLUE ON HOW TRUE THIS IS.  That being said these are my initial thoughts:

- We've heard rumors/ideas of this kinda thing before, and it never happens. So I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't. However, the fact that they said that advisors are involved and neither company commented on the report (as of yet), even when it is impacting both company's share price (especially CF's) leads me to think that there may be more truth to this than previous rumors.

- I don't feel too strongly good or bad about the deal if it does go through. I think some of the Cedar Fair parks could benefit from the increased theming, budgets, and more aggressive strategy (more frequent/larger additions, more seasonal events, longer calendars, etc.) that SeaWorld uses, and I think that SeaWorld could benefit from the stability in management that Cedar Fair has. Of course, that's assuming that SeaWorld doesn't can everybody in the first 5 minutes...

- As far as the park's go, I'm not sure how they would be affected. My guess is SeaWorld will want to ditch the Peanuts in favor of Sesame Street (sorry Knott's), but it's anyone's guess after that I think. Carowinds might be adversely affected as SW might want to shift resources to park's in other markets like CGA, and start treating Carowinds like Paramount did. I don't know if SeaWorld will want to get rid of the smaller CF parks (ValleyFair, Dorney, Worlds of Fun, and the Gilroy Gardens contract) to help fund the purchase or if they'll just get more of the short end of the stick. There's very little overlap between the two company's parks and where there is overlap I think there is enough difference between the two parks that it won't matter. With one exception...

- If, and that's a big IF, the deal happens I think the biggest looser will be Kings Dominion. I don't see how KD and BGW, being basically an hour apart, can both be ran by the same company without one of them suffering. I can't think of a time that a company owned two parks within such a short distance that it worked out well for both parks. I think BGW is already the stronger park, and my guess is the investment will continue to flow there, and in a larger company KD will be forgotten more than it already is. I don't think SW would shut KD down, but I think that at the very least investment and additions will drop off, and a sale would probably be in the cards if an offer came along.

- Yes, one pass to all those parks would be great, but I don't think that's important now and it's not the biggest deal to me.  Besides, SeaWorld has been hit or miss on passes lately, or so I've heard...

Keeping all this in mind, barring some major news or confirmation, I'd keep hopes and expectations low.

[jedimaster1227]

We've opened a separate thread since this affects both companies--please continue the conversation here:

 

[swfan1988]

SeaWorld Entertainment Released Q4 Earnings today:

https://www.seaworldinvestors.com/news-releases/news-release-details/2022/SeaWorld-Entertainment-Inc.-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Fiscal-2021-Results/default.aspx

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: SEAS), a leading theme park and entertainment company, today reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021.[1]

Fourth Quarter 2021 Highlights

Attendance was 5.0 million guests, an increase of 2.7 million guests from the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, attendance increased by 0.3 million guests or 5.4%.

Total revenue was a record $370.8 million, an increase of $216.7 million from the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, total revenue increased by $72.8 million or 24.4%.

Net income was a record $71.5 million, an increase of $117.1 million from the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, net income increased by $95.7 million.

Adjusted EBITDA[2] was a record $152.8 million an increase of $130.0 million from the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, Adjusted EBITDA increased by $68.8 million or 82.0%.

Total revenue per capita increased 7.9% to $74.87 from the fourth quarter of 2020. Admission per capita increased 5.3% to $43.65 while in-park per capita spending increased 11.7% to $31.22 from the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, total revenue per capita increased 18.1%, admission per capita increased 15.2%, and in-park per capita spending increased 22.3%.

Fiscal 2021 Highlights

Attendance was 20.2 million guests, an increase of 13.8 million guests from fiscal 2020. Compared to fiscal 2019, attendance declined by 2.4 million guests or 10.7%.

Total revenue was a record $1,503.7 million, an increase of $1,072.0 million from fiscal 2020. Compared to fiscal 2019, total revenue increased by $105.5 million or 7.5%.

Net income was a record $256.5 million, an increase of $568.8 million from fiscal 2020. Compared to fiscal 2019, net income increased by $167.0 million or 186.7%.

Adjusted EBITDA was a record $662.0 million. Compared to fiscal 2019, Adjusted EBITDA increased by $205.1 million or 44.9%.

Total revenue per capita increased 9.9% to $74.43 from fiscal 2020. Admission per capita increased 5.2% to $42.17 while in-park per capita spending increased 16.5% to $32.26 from fiscal 2020. Compared to fiscal 2019, total revenue per capita increased 20.4%, admission per capita increased 18.9%, and in-park per capita spending increased 22.6%.

...

[CEO Marc Swanson:] "While we have made good progress on our plans, as we look to the future, we continue to be highly confident that we can deliver even more operational and financial improvements that we expect will lead to meaningful increases in shareholder value. In particular, we believe our forward ride, attraction and park enhancement investment plans are the most robust they have ever been, and currently reflect the cadence, focus areas and strategies we have been working towards.  We continue to improve our commercial functionality with investments in talent and capabilities in revenue management and marketing and have opportunities for continued improvement in these areas.  We also continue to identify, track and execute on additional cost reduction and efficiency opportunities that we expect to continue to help offset inflationary pressures and lead to structurally improved profitability.  With respect to our digital capabilities, including our mobile app and CRM implementations, we are encouraged by the early results and are in the very early innings of realizing the full potential.  And, we continue to make progress on our inorganic growth initiatives related to hotels, new parks and international expansion and expect to have more to share later in the year," 

"We are also pleased to have ended 2021 in a particularly strong financial position, as a result of the proactive and decisive decisions made over the last couple of years as well as our record financial performance in 2021.  Our available liquidity, including cash on our balance sheet and capacity on our revolver credit facility, was over $800 million and our total net leverage was less than 2.50x.  Our strong financial position provides us significant flexibility to invest in our business, fund high growth ROI initiatives, consider strategic opportunities and / or return capital to our shareholders," concluded Swanson.

They also say that the increase in revenue, despite decreasing attendance, is caused by: price increases, changes in "admissions product mix" (lol), and "enhanced or expanded in-park offerings when compared to 2019".

 

Sounds to me like SEAS has found success with their current strategy and that they plan to continue with it! It also sounds like they have a lot of stuff planned, so it might be interesting to watch what they got going. They seem to be trumpeting the fact that they are in a good financial spot, which I guess is good considering that a few years ago it looked like they were really struggling.

Oh, and apparently the CEO said on the earnings call that "We have a lot of respect for Cedar Fair - the assets and their management team." Hmmm...maybe I'll just leave it at that...

[Hilltopper39]

That all seems pretty encouraging, glad to see them performing well after the last couple of years. 

 

I do like their strategy of adding more rides and focusing on the events, the events I've been to have all been really fun and made me want to come back. I have a feeling that new attractions across the major chains in America will slow down a little bit over the next couple of years so if SEAS can keep adding things on a regular basis good for them! Not much on the horizon for the Orlando Market after Guardians opens then summer besides Tron and Epic Universe which is still a ways out, should be a nice time for SWO to add that new coaster, maybe a couple of screaming swings for BGT and SW? 

[Bob325]

Question:  I recently bought my first SeaWorld Platinum Pass from SeaWorld San Antonio.  I know I get parking included and discounts on things like food and merchandise at SWSA, but do those things apply to other SW/BG parks?  I can get into those parks but are parking and discounts included?  I know bring-a-friend-free and attractions aren't, just wondering on the perks that would apply to all parks, like those for Six Flags and Cedar Fair Platinum passes.  When I look at the SW and BG apps at any park other than SWSA, there are no Platinum Pass benefits listed.

Heading next week to the first of all the SW/BG parks over the next few months and looking forward to it!

Thanks for any info!

[tndank]

Entry and preferred parking (if avail) at each park.  You get discounts in the park on food and merch.  QQ discount is a toss up and probably depends on the employee.  BAF passes, monthly perks, free encounter, etc are home park only.