Dreamworld’s Ardent Leisure to hold annual general meeting on future of Gold Coast theme parks

DREAMWORLD took a significant financial hit in the wake of last year’s tragedy. Now the future of the iconic tourist attraction will be decided within weeks. And big changes are expected.

THE fate of Australia’s biggest theme park will be sealed on a level-35 Sydney meeting room on November 20, when the new-look board of Ardent Leisure fronts shareholders for the second annual general meeting since the tragedy of 2016.

Last year’s meeting was dominated by criticism of a $167,500 company bonus for then-CEO and managing director Deborah Thomas, who donated the funds to the Red Cross.

This year’s is likely to centre around a lack of significant investment in the Gold Coast theme parks, a sluggish recovery in attendance and an eye-watering $62.6 million loss in the 2016-17 financial year.

Dreamworld stats.

In the 12 months since the fatal accident, the company that heads Dreamworld and WhiteWater World has had three chairmen and two CEOs.

While rightly respecting the staggering grief that rippled outwards from the family of the four people killed a year ago today, those in charge of the entertainment powerhouse, the parks’ 1000 jobs, and the investments of thousands of people, have at times appeared paralysed by the scale and publicity of the accident.

Queensland University of Technology’s Malcolm Burt, who has spent his academic career studying theme parks, hopes Ardent has not left its run too late.

“It happens in theme parks around the world and generally, they handle it sensitively at first but then it’s followed by a large expansion soon after,” he said.

“That’s usually what happens after parks suffer a terrible calamity.

“The last few things that Dreamworld has created are shops — shops are fine but what brings people back is new big rides and family rides.

“I just want them to do something.”

Something, perhaps, like a $30 million new rollercoaster — as Village Roadshow Theme Parks has used to bump attendance at Movie World back to the same levels as last September.

Village Roadshow took its own hit from last year’s tragedy — a loss of $66.7 million — but the response has been markedly different from that of Ardent, ploughing money into a pipeline of new attractions.

It’s very much the approach the new-look Ardent board have flagged as they look to revive the company.

Dreamworld through the years

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Newcomers to the board, including chairman Gary Weiss and rich-lister Kevin Seymour, came from Ardent’s largest shareholder Ariadne Australia.

Before their appointment, wielding an aggressive “Fix Ardent” campaign and website, the Ariadne investors outlined a detailed plan to access a $300 million “potential opportunity” in theme parks to invest in the parks and boost attendance.

Funds needed to boost the park would come from the mooted $25 million sale of 25ha of the park’s 60ha site at Coomera — a plan also outlined by the former Ardent regimen but not yet actioned.

Ardent Leisure Group chairman Dr Gary Weiss. Picture: Chris Pavlich

Dr Weiss was appointed chairman just three weeks after being elected to the board.

Former Nine Entertainment Co executive Simon Kelly replaced Ms Thomas as CEO and managing director on July 1.

Ms Thomas, who had been in the position two years, received a $731,291 termination payment and has been retained as a consultant to Ardent, to be paid $3000 for every day she assists the company through the Coronial Inquest.

No Ardent theme park or entertainment CEOs received their bonuses for the 2017 financial year.

In the company’s annual report, remuneration chair David Haslingden, who is himself up for re-election to the board next month, said “FY17 was a challenging year”.

“Focus is now firmly on the execution of opportunities to deliver further value upside for security holders and optimising our allocation of scarce capital resources to secure returns above our cost of capital,” he wrote.

Flowers flooded the theme park as the city mourned those killed. Photo: David Clark

The company sold its Health Clubs and Marina businesses at the end of the year, investing capital from those sales in expanding its US Main Event entertainment business.

On the Gold Coast, a pinch point could be looming as annual passes bought in a local outpouring of support for Dreamworld begin to expire.

Mr Burt said many locals had annual passes to both Ardent and Village Roadshow parks, but that the rival companies usually came up with something around the end of the year to win over families who only bought one group of parks or the other.

Dreamworld has been a family favourite for generations. Picture: Glenn Hampson

He said it was good for business, and the Coast more widely, for both groups to succeed.

“They really need to offer them something special to get them back, disposable income is not infinite,” he said.

“I would like Dreamworld to announce something big.”