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Merlin making noises about Government Aid

K

Kraken27

TS Member
Not Towers specific - more Merlin Group, so mods please move topic if need be.

Article in todays Times newspaper Business section stating that Merlin are making noises about needing state aid from the Government to ride out the Covid-19 crisis. Can't repeat the article due to copyright & It's behind a pay-wall for Times subscribers, so cannot link it.

Article title is "Legoland owner sounds the alarm over it's future"
Summary...
Merlin has tapped the bond markets for €400m to bolster it's finances, but is now also looking at government schemes to help keep businesses afloat. Cost of Merlin furloughed staff is about £10m per month. If a "worse than expected scenario" occurs, with a shut-down extending to/beyond mid-July, Merlins' liquidity could be exhausted without new funds. Merlin's debt has risen to £4.2bn, at end of last year, up from £2.2bn a year earlier. Merlin has debt interest payments of about £12m a month, arising from bonds issued when it was publicaly traded.
 
Ooh dear, this doesn't sound good. However, I did hear someone in another thread saying that the government was apparently considering further help for the tourism sector soon, so they may benefit from that.

Also, KIRKBI and Blackstone may well invest some money into Merlin to keep it afloat; they surely don't want their £6bn investment that they only made last year to go to waste.
 
Merlin's a company with some invaluable assets so even if it fails I wouldn't expect any major impact at an attraction level.
Of course I don't expect it to fail

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I'd imagine Merlin are clawing the staff costs back but no, it ain't good. However I agree with above, if Merlin collapsed it'd just be bought out of liquidation either in parts or as a whole.
 
Mr Pearse said:
So next season expect prices to rise quite dramatically?.
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If anything, I'd wager that we might see prices drop in order to tempt people in; a lot of companies tend to drop prices to increase demand.
 
Merlin used to make a point of telling investors that they funded new investments from ‘operating free cashflow’ i.e. money generated from guest spending as opposed to borrowing.

If they want to continue this approach and not laden themselves with more debt I wouldn’t be surprised if new investments get even smaller in the next few years since there is no cash coming in right now for them to spend.
 
AT86 said:
Merlin used to make a point of telling investors that they funded new investments from ‘operating free cashflow’ i.e. money generated from guest spending as opposed to borrowing.

If they want to continue this approach and not laden themselves with more debt I wouldn’t be surprised if new investments get even smaller in the next few years since there is no cash coming in right now for them to spend.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but was this when Merlin was a public company? If so, then their approach may have changed slightly now that they don't have investors to worry about. KIRKBI, Blackstone and the Canadian pension fund who bought part of Merlin (I can't remember their name) will be in this for long-term growth as opposed to short-term returns; Nick Varney and the other members of the Merlin team emphasised this greatly in a video promoting the buyout.
 
They should probably just close one of Chessington or Thorpe Park and distribute the rides between Alton and whichever of the original two survive. Maybe you could have the staff from the 2 South parks in a Battle Royale kind of fight to the death to decide which one survives? Just thinking out loud really.
 
BarryZola said:
They should probably just close one of Chessington or Thorpe Park and distribute the rides between Alton and whichever of the original two survive. Maybe you could have the staff from the 2 South parks in a Battle Royale kind of fight to the death to decide which one survives? Just thinking out loud really.
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In all seriousness selling Thorpe Park would be superb.

Pass it on to a new operator who actually wants to invest in it.
 
I know there is a bit of ‘careful what you wish for’ but anything that breaks up Merlin’s monopoly on UK theme parks would be welcomed by me.

The same company owning the top 4 most visited parks in the country is mad. It’s like Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s all being owned by the same company. When Merlin purchased Tussauds they should have been made to sell off at least one park.
 
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TBH they should sell CWOA. Thorpe could be made to work but CWOA just seems like a pain to work with, a shame really as I do like Vampire etc but it's not really easy. Either that or ship most of the rides to Thorpe and make it the zoo plus Transylvania
 
Poisson said:
TBH they should sell CWOA. Thorpe could be made to work but CWOA just seems like a pain to work with, a shame really as I do like Vampire etc but it's not really easy. Either that or ship most of the rides to Thorpe and make it the zoo plus Transylvania
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I think most of the RTPs could work as standalone businesses, don't think they would need to be merged as such.

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imanautie said:
I've long said I think THORPE would fit nicely with six flags.

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Six Flags abandon their parks that are hit by hurricanes, I doubt they'd want one that was smeared in crap and rolled in a very thin layer of glitter either
 
Thorpe would lend itself to the Walibi atmosphere far better than Six Flags, but that's a whole other discussion.
 
Yep I'd take Six Flags. It runs like a Six Flags anyway at the moment but with crap rides.

Six Flags Great Staines Adventure.
 
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