Alright, i know it is a bit of late, but, i remember hearing about this and i thought i may aswell have a look for what it was really all about: http://finance.news.com.au/common/story_pa...255E462,00.html C u Soon!

Hey, I also found another little creepy thing online..... http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~ecotone/es203...dreamworld2.htm

**** man, that photo of dreamworld, where have i been going than? what the hell is that theme park in qld with the gaint drop? :confused:

Meh.. A bit of a mix up I'd say.

What I'm a bit annoyed about is how well Macquarie Leisure Trust have been doing. I've been thinking about investing maybe $1,000 in Maquarie Leisure Trust units for a number of years now, and I've watched the unit price go from around 50c to a unit, up to now over $1.00. They seem to be a great company. Dreamworld was a fantastic investment for them. Not so much for the returns it gives, but because of its high value, it gives them more borrowing power. If you think this company is going to be expanding with more theme parks, I'd think again, I'd be looking at marinas (of which they already have a fantastic and growing portfolio), and other things like golf courses. If you want a bad investment, then Village Roadshow is your bet. Their theme parks are doing great, but when it comes to films and the company as a whole, they're getting too big a little to fast, and I'm not really a fan of some of their board of directors, or some of their recent decisions (in my opinion, in comparison Michael Eisner is a saint ).

Why would they need to borrow money if Maqcuarie Leisure is a division of Maqcuaire Bank?

The world doesn't work quite as simply as that. For starters, Macquarie Leisure Trust isn't a division, it is a public company (i.e. listed on the Stock Exchange), with 7,228 different unitholders who own the company. I believe that Macquarie Bank hold a significant percentage of the company, but that doesn't mean that they hand out piles of money to them - even if they were entirely owned by Macquarie Bank, how would giving them money help the actual bank, when that same money could be lent to another company with interest payments. I assure you that Macquarie Leisure Trust do indeed rely on banks and loans and whatnot, just like any other company in the world, to survive.