Just got to thinking after reading something about how the US is almost at its limit of what the can borrow at the moment, how much debt are the world's parks in? I know that yes they make millions per year but they all had to start somewhere. I would assume they all have massive bank loans to fund all the rides and bills, but how much are we talking?

Village lists it's debt in it's asx reports, and while I don't have the numbers on me, I believe it's somewhere around the $300mil mark but I'll have to check back later. As for the others, Six Flags had something like $1.6B debt, Cedar Fair is something similar. Universal Orlando I think also has about $1B worth of debt, but again, I will have to check since it's been ages since I checked this stuff.

Wow, do you think it would ever be something they could pay off?* While keeping everything up to date and adding some new stuff every now and then

In reference to Australian parks, keep in mind that these companies are much bigger than just the themeparks, particularly for Village. I would pressume that those numbers are fairly managable for companies as big as they are. (I could be completely wrong though and they might be really struggling) For smaller parks like the Luna Parks, Aussie World, Jamberoo etc...I wouldn't have a clue what type of financial state they are in. Would be interesting to find out.

Edited April 10, 201114 yr by keadz

Also Village owns 52% of the Austero network, you know Triple M, B105, 2DayFm and Southern Cross Media, SeaFm, GoldFm (which I think is actually owned by Macquarie?) just put in a bid to buy ALL of the Austero network and Village have already said they are going to accept the offer. This is the second thing the company has recently sold off, with the other being Sydney Attraction Group. I'm just wondering if this will shrink their debt and if we'll see any money injected into the parks.

From the Finance news last week (March 29th). Village have already ditched the Austereo Group.... Shares in Village Roadshow Ltd (ASX:VRL) closed almost 15 per cent stronger on Monday after announcing it had accepted Southern Cross Media Group’s (ASX:SXL) offer for its 52.5 per cent stake in radio broadcaster Austereo. The theme park operator will receive initial proceeds of around $362 million from the sale which will likely result in a pre-tax profit of around $205 million. Village Roadshow intends to put the funds towards pursuing growth in China, investing in its film and music division and distributing $1 per share to shareholders in July. At the beginning of the month the company sold its Sydney Attractions Group for $115 million to England’s Merlin Entertainment Group. Yesterday shares in Southern Cross Media Group fell 1.49 per cent to close at $1.65. Shares in Village Roadshow climbed 14.94 per cent to close at $4.00. In the first six months of the 2011 financial year, Village Roadshow generated a net profit of $48 million.

China hey... either they might be looking to expand their music and film industry over there or maybe their entertainment companies cinemas, Intencity or theme parks? Other than that though it didn't say they would be using the money to pay off debt or investing into the parks they currently have.

Edited April 13, 201114 yr by Original

China hey... either they might be looking to expand their music and film industry over there or maybe their entertainment companies cinemas, Intencity or theme parks? Other than that though it didn't say they would be using the money to pay off debt or investing into the parks they currently have.

They are planning to open theme park/s in China, through a joint venture partner. It looks like theme parks are going to be their focus now - which is good! So the money from the sale of their other assets will be going towards the China expansions, paying down debt, returning capital to shareholders and possibly some towards Wet n Wild Sydney... but not towards their existing GC parks. They already have allocated capital to build new attractions for their GC parks as they have been doing on a regular basis