FUN Q2 2024 Earnings

Call Details

• Call Title: Six Flags Entertainment Q2 2024 Earnings Call
• Date: August 8, 2024 at 2:00 PM UTC
• Management Team:
  • Michael Russell (Corporate Director of Investor Relations)
  • Brian Witherow (Chief Financial Officer)
  • Richard Zimmerman (Chief Executive Officer)

Call Summary

Financial Performance

• Legacy Cedar Fair generated a record $572 million in net revenues on record attendance of 8.6 million guests for the comparable quarter.
• Legacy Cedar Fair out-of-park revenues reached a second quarter record $73 million while in-park per capita spending declined 3% versus the comparable period.
• Legacy Cedar Fair adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased to a record $205 million and adjusted EBITDA margin improved to nearly 36%, up 230 basis points versus the comparable three-month period last year.
• Legacy Six Flags produced $438 million in total revenues on attendance of 6.9 million guests, compared with $444 million and 7.1 million visits in the prior-year quarter.
• Legacy Six Flags adjusted EBITDA fell $23 million to $138 million and modified EBITDA margin declined to 36.9% from 41.6% a year ago.
• Combined five-week fiscal period ended August 4 recorded 10.9 million visits, down 3% (approximately 350,000 visits) versus the prior-year period.
• Excluding four parks disrupted by macro events in July, attendance in the remainder of the combined portfolio was down 1% (approximately 150,000 visits) for the five-week period.
• Trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA for Legacy Cedar Fair was $585 million entering the merger close.

Guidance

• For full-year 2024, Legacy Cedar Fair CapEx is expected to be $200 to $220 million and Legacy Six Flags CapEx is expected to be $200 to $220 million.
• For cash flow modeling purposes going forward, the company is projecting annualized cash interest payments of $300 to $310 million.
• For cash flow modeling purposes going forward, the company is projecting annualized cash tax payments of $140 to $150 million before further tax planning efforts.
• The company expects to capture stated cost synergies over the next 12 to 18 months and believes $40 to $50 million of operational synergies should be realized by the end of 2024 based on current trends.
• Management will provide more details around the scale and scope of future capital programs by spring of next year.
• No numeric guidance was provided for second-half 2024 consolidated revenue or per-cap metrics during the call.