The parent company of Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain has no plans to close any of its 42 theme parks and water parks while the North American amusement park chain continues to weigh the potential sale of underperforming parks.
“We have no plans to close parks,” Six Flags Director of Communications Gary Rhodes said via email.
Six Flags CEO Richard Zimmerman was asked about a potential asset sale last week during a call with Wall Street analysts.
“Every park in our portfolio has a role,” Zimmerman said on the call. “If it plays its role right, these are irreplaceable assets. But we also want to make sure that we’re investing to drive growth across the combined portfolio.”
Zimmerman declined to put a timeframe on any potential asset sale during his discussion with analysts.
“We’re going to be very diligent and work methodically through what we think is possible and what would make sense as we think about our capital structure and capital allocation priorities,” Zimmerman said on the call.
Six Flags floated the possibility of selling some theme parks as part of Project Accelerate during the company’s latest quarterly earnings call on Nov. 6.
Six Flags listed “Portfolio Optimization” as a key objective as part of an investor presentation and promised a “comprehensive review of the portfolio to evaluate the potential divestiture of non-core assets to help reduce leverage.”
“In layman’s terms, Six Flags will review its roster of parks and may consider selling some of them,” according to Attractions Magazine.
The comprehensive portfolio review includes excess and undeveloped land, Zimmerman said on the call.