New display name

Ardent Leisure is claiming it's moving ahead with re-zoning the land where Dreamworld is located. I've searched and can't find any application to re-zone the land. Ardent's presentation gives very limited information on the details of the new zones to be created, but once the application is available for viewing, I'll post the details of each new zone to be created. But for now, a mixed zone purpose in the code is for the use of a mix of activities, including business, retail, tourist accommodation. associated services and low impact industrial use.

More concept drawings from Ardents F23 results. DW say, they still have more attractions to announce for other parts of the park.

This has nothing to do with the Dreamland upgrade @Brad2912

DW''s latest concept drawings taken from the FY23 results prestation.

Linking to paywalls sucks.

This statement is still true.

Save your 5 bucks. It will be a race for the theme park youtubers to show it on their channels.

I'm just upset that I never got a letter from Mr Kingston. That tells me he is looking for a quick return.

Village have a MCU approval for a hotel but no approval to build a hotel. Village haven't submitted an application to build the hotel. Village have a MCU to build cabins at Paradise Country, Village have an MCU for on offsite car park and Village have never lodged an application to build any of them..

A battle is brewing for control of Dreamworld theme park owner Ardent Leisure with activist investor David Kingston requisitioning the company’s share register to drum up discontent over what he claims is poor performance by management. Mr Kingston has written to Ardent shareholders demanding that the company return its $141 million of idle cash via a buyback to support its ailing stock price, or alternatively, a straight capital return. He also wants Ardent to actively pursue merger and acquisition options, or a sale of key assets including its land. Ardent issued a profit upgrade on July 10, which Mr Kingston said happened after he requisitioned the share register. In that update, Ardent said it would deliver its best performance since financial year 2016, when four people were killed on one of the key attractions at Dreamworld. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation excluding one-offs would roughly be at breakeven for the full year. But Mr Kingston said the visitation was only 1.2 million visitors in financial year 2023 – half the visitors recorded in 2016. “In financial year 2016, Ardent’s theme parks were successful with attendances of 2.4 million visitors, which provided the necessary revenue to deliver EBITDA of $35 million,” he said. “For a relatively high fixed cost business, the failure to recover anywhere near financial year 2016 attendance levels is a major problem.” Mr Kingston said Ardent’s $230 million market capitalisation implied its parks and surplus land are valued at only $57 million, after deducting the $141 million in cash and a $32 million valuation on its Skypoint Tower, and adding back the $50 million in capital expenditure management have committed to putting into the business. He said the current management team had failed to deliver on promises made to turn the company around when they took over in 2017. “Six years later, that cited opportunity has failed to materialise by a massive margin – maybe the chairman’s 2017 plan itself comes from a ‘dream world’,” Mr Kingston said. Ardent hit back, saying Mr Kingston and Charles Kingston’s K Capital own less than half a per cent of its shares, many of which were accumulated over the past month. It will continue to assess options to return capital to shareholders, as well as work with the Queensland government on park development opportunities. Ardent chief executive Greg Yong said there was no need to rush any M&A ahead of securing the approvals. “Our view is that’s the first step in us unlocking that value. We want to do that as expeditiously as we can, but we’re not in a hurry to rush out and sell off land. The land is not getting any less valuable in this part of the world,” Mr Yong said. In his letter, Mr Kingston compares Dreamworld’s performance with that of Movie World and Sea World owner Village Roadshow, which was acquired by private equity outfit BGH Capital in 2020 and subsequently delisted. Parts of the land on which the Village parks sit were sold and leased back to unlock value for investors. “[It is] bizarre that in the second half of 2023, Ardent delivered zero EBITDA, which is burning cash post-maintenance capex and head office costs, when its peer Village Roadshow parks is performing strongly,” Mr Kingston said. But Mr Yong, who previously worked at Village, said it was difficult to substantiate any comparison to the now-unlisted competitor, which has not published accounts. Mr Kingston emphasised his role in having helped to broker BGH’s acquisition of Village Roadshow, saying other private equity outfits including Blackstone and Pacific Equity Partners saw value in the theme parks sector. Former Village Roadshow executive John Kirby is also on the Ardent register. Mr Kirby sold some of his holding in Village Roadshow after its acquisition, and has not been a part of its operations since he was sidelined when his nephew Clark Kirby took up the role as chief executive after a bitter family feud in 2019. (Ayesha de Kretser Financial Review) Is the the start of the end for Ardent Leisure?

Yesterday was the proper vote. The vote before was the vote before the vote.

You can get onride footage too.

There is the test seat that operates off tracks which is more exciting to ride then riding Doomsday.

If they are still testing the new element in August, it sounds like they are cutting it close for the track to arrive in Australia by the end of the year.

Is it too early to ask RMC to retrack Leviathan?

So, you're saying Trident was closed when you went to SW.

What does that mean for the Jungle coaster coming @DaptoFunlandGuy?

Not much of a forest.

In the end it doesn't really matter what conditions council put on the hotel because Village can ask for changed by taking the council to the planning and environment court. I believe council only put conditions on approvals to save face with the voters and can blame the courts when the court overrides the council.

It's cheaper to go for 2 nights then one night with a maze fast pass.

Town Planners always write up the positives of the project and why they support it.

I don't know what it says because I can't open it but the only objection that had teeth was Energex objection. Village has since updated reports and now Energex supports the application are no longer concerned the hotel will cause flooding to its infrastructure.

What part of following guest feedback we have amended operations isn't blaming guest? Blind Freddy knows what is going on here, the ride can't run at normal operations without breaking down, but MW is telling us it's because guest want it that way. This is exactly the same blame game DW tried when DW said guest want shaded seating over a new attraction to replace the Wipeout.

MW has a new low of blaming guest.

I would like to see MW do something down there too. Hopefully WOO brings some life to the old AA area and MW see the benefit of creating a path and new attractions in that area.