11 Apr 2019
Dreamworld owner Ardent Leisure restructures finance to fund growth
BY Andy Knaggs
Ardent Leisure Group, owner of the Dreamworld, WhiteWater World and SkyPoint theme parks in Australia, has secured a new financing deal that it says will allow it to invest further in its parks.
The US$200m (€177.3m, £152.8m) term loan facility is secured and guaranteed by Ardent’s wholly-owned US subsidiary, Main Event Entertainment, and is non-recourse to other assets of Ardent. It consists of a US$125m drawn term loan and a US$75m delayed draw term loan. A US$25m (€22.17m, £19.11m) revolving credit facility is also available.
The funding has enabled Ardent Leisure to repay its existing Australian bank debt, and the company’s statement said that "the balance of the proceeds will be available to support investment in Theme Parks and Main Event, as well as general corporate purposes". Main Event operates "family entertainment centres" with activities such as billiards, bowling, mini golf arcade games, rock climbing and gravity ropes.
Dreamworld found itself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2016 when four visitors were killed after a malfunction on the theme park’s Thunder River Rapids ride. The tragedy has had a significant and ongoing impact on the company’s results, with its half-year figures announced in February 2019 showing a decline of AUS$4.5m (US$3.22m, €2.86m, £2.46m) in its Theme Parks division. This, said the company, was "due to continued challenging conditions following the Thunder River Rapids ride incident and subsequent coronial inquiry hearings".
Regarding the new financing arrangement, Ardent Leisure said that the funding would "enable it to make the necessary investments to return the Theme Parks operations to profitability and to support the development of new Main Event centres". Main Event is hoping to open new centres at a rate of five to eight centres per year.
Following repayment of the bank debt, Ardent now has more than AUS$80m (US$57.28m, €50.79m, £43.76m) in cash, while Main Event has access to US$100m (€88.68m, £76.43m) in undrawn facilities.
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