Ardent feel heat as numbers take dive
ARDENT Leisure has partly blamed a change in Victoria’s school holidays for the continuing slump in visitors at its troubled Dreamworld theme park on the Gold Coast.
But analysts warn the impact of the tragic accident on its Thunder River Rapids ride that killed four people last October is still turning away tourists from Dreamworld.
Ardent told the ASX yesterday that visitor numbers at its parks, which also include WhiteWater World, slumped 30.5 per cent last month compared with June last year.
Revenue fell 35.3 per cent in June but Ardent says both visitor numbers and revenue had improved compared with May this year.
The tourism operator blamed the timing of Victorian school holidays for part of the slump. Victorian school holidays fell in July this year as opposed to June in 2016.
That had been compensated for partly by the Queensland school holidays, which started on June 24 this year compared to June 25 in 2016.
Morningstar analyst Brian Han said the theme parks would recover eventually but it would take time for people’s memories of the fatal accident to fade.
“They have already written off the June half,” Mr Han said. The company previously announced that it expected a loss of between $2 million and $4 million for the year.
The continuing drop in visitor numbers at Dreamworld comes as Ardent’s board faces a challenge from shareholders, including Ariadne and property tycoon Kevin Seymour.
Ariadne wants veteran corporate raider Gary Weiss and Mr Seymour, along with two other nominees, installed on the board at a special shareholders meeting in September.
In a move set to place further pressure on Ardent, Malaysian billionaire Lee Seng Huang last week bought a 5.3 per cent stake in Ardent through his Hong businesses.
CCZ Equities analyst Roger Colman said Dreamworld may need more than two years to recover and required an “under new management” sign to compete against rival parks such as Movieworld and Sea World, owned by Village Roadshow.
He said the investment by Mr Lee underscored the value that could be recovered from Ardent’s assets, which also included ten pin bowling centres in the US. Kongbased