Six Flags Inc., seeking to reduce its $2.2 billion of debt by selling theme parks, received bids for the properties – including one in Denver – that may fall short of investors’ expectations, two people briefed on the matter said.
Buyout firm MidOcean Partners and theme park operator Herschend Family Entertainment Corp. offered less than $650 million for the six locations, said the people, who declined to be identified because the process is private. Real estate investor CNL Financial Group offered at least $650 million, one of the people said.
The six parks are in Denver, Los Angeles; Seattle; Houston; Concord, Calif.; and Buffalo, N.Y. Six Flags was seeking $170 million for the 75-acre Elitch Garden’s site in Denver, according to a real estate developer who saw the offering last summer.
Elitch Gardens, which is closed for the season, moved to the Central Platte Valley in 1995.
The site is zoned exclusively for an amusement park. It could be redeveloped, but faces substantial regulatory and environmental obstacles, according to the city.
Six Flags, the second-largest U.S. theme-park operator with 30 properties, may need $800 million to sufficiently lower debt ratios, according to analysts including Merrill Lynch & Co.’s John Maxwell.
Chairman Daniel Snyder, who owns the Washington Redskins professional football team, is trying to cut the debt load and reverse a 20 percent drop in Six Flags stock this year.
“The market will be disappointed if meaningful proceeds are not achieved,” Barbara Cappaert, an analyst at Montpelier, Vt.-based KDP Investment Advisors, wrote in a Nov. 3 note to clients. “Asset sales are critical to gaining investor confidence.”
Six Flags spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg declined to comment.
Denver Post staff writer Julie Dunn contributed to this report.
