Covid theme park closures hit Ardent Leisure’s bottom line

Gold Coast theme park operator Ardent posts a $136.6m loss and warns of more ‘challenging’ conditions ahead in the pandemic.

Theme Park closures hit Ardent Leisure’s bottom line. Picture: Adam Head

The closure of the Gold Coast’s iconic theme parks because of the coronavirus pandemic dragged Ardent Leisure to a full-year net loss of $136.6m.

While income the operator of Dreamworld and WhiteWater World had been tracking around 5 per cent higher in both its US and Australian businesses in the financial year to February, group revenue ultimately fell $85m to $398.3m over the full 12 months, largely as a result of shutdowns.

Trading revenue in Ardent’s theme park division was 18.8 per cent lower at $54.5m.

Prior to park closures on March 23, the Australian division has seen a 4.5 per cent rise in attendance levels and an almost like-for-like lift in revenues.

After almost a quarter of closures, the division ended with an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation loss of around $24m.

Ardent Leisure chairman Gary Weiss said the pandemic had a “significant impact”.

“While positive progress had been achieved by main event and theme parks in the first eight months of the year, our focus turned to capital management and securing capital for the businesses as the COVID-19 pandemic escalated,” Dr Weiss said.

Earlier this month, the Queensland government gave Ardent financial assistance as part of its pledge to support the state‘s tourism industry. The company’s theme park division received a $66.9m secured loan and a grant of $3m. Investment firm RedBird Capital also provided a $US80m boost to the company’s US arm.

Dr Weiss said despite the support, the future will remain challenging until travel and social distancing restrictions currently in place are lifted.

“We anticipate uncertain and challenging conditions to continue in the 2021 financial year, however we believe that the demand for out-of-home family entertainment experiences will be stronger than ever once the pandemic has subsided and restrictions have eased,” he said.

Revenues of Ardent’s US division, Main Event, declined 21.7 per cent in local currency.

Net debt for the group sat at $78.4m at June 30. A final dividend was not declared.

Its shares fell 3.3 per cent on Thursday, to 44c each.

Village Roadshow – which operates competing parks Movie World, SeaWorld and Wet’n’Wild – will report earnings on Friday.