EXHIBIT 99.1
[SIX FLAGS LOGO]
SIX FLAGS REPORTS 2007 FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL YEAR RESULTS
o Fourth Quarter Revenue Up 7% on Attendance and Guest Spending Growth
o Twelve Month Revenue Up 3% on Increased Total Revenue Per Capita and
Stable Attendance, Despite Fewer Park Operating Days
New York, NY - March 10, 2008 - Six Flags, Inc. (NYSE: SIX) announced today
operating results for its fourth quarter and twelve months ended December 31,
2007. (1)
Commenting on the Company's progress, Six Flags President and CEO, Mark Shapiro,
stated: "Our turnaround plan is on pace. Guest spending and guest satisfaction
are at record levels and our corporate sponsorship business has shown impressive
growth. The recent announcement of our strategic expansion into Dubai validates
the growing strength and momentum of our brand."
Total revenue for the quarter increased 7% to $112.1 million from $104.3 million
in the prior-year quarter. Attendance increased 0.1 million, or 4%, to 2.8
million from 2.7 million in the prior-year quarter. The attendance increase
reflects an improved December performance compared to the prior-year quarter.
Total revenue per capita for the quarter increased by $1.43 (4%) to $39.38,
reflecting a 4% increase in guest spending for admissions and increased in-park
spending for food and beverages and rentals, as well as increased sponsorship
revenue. Total per capita guest spending increased $1.17 (4%) during the quarter
to $34.49.
The Company's net loss from continuing operations for the quarter was $130.8
million, compared to a loss of $100.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2006,
reflecting increased non-cash charges for losses on fixed assets from the
decision to remove certain inefficient rides and attractions, and higher
stock-based compensation costs, partially offset by increased revenue. Other
expense also increased, reflecting severance and benefits costs related to a
reduction in our full-time workforce primarily through an early retirement
program, as well as accruals for certain contingencies.
Net loss applicable to common stock in the fourth quarter 2007 was $132.4
million, or $1.39 per share - basic and diluted, compared to net loss applicable
to common stock of $195.2 million, or $2.07 per common share - basic and
diluted, in the prior-year period, which included $89.2 million (or $0.95 per
common share - basic and diluted) of loss from discontinued operations.
Shapiro continued, "We are well-positioned for the 2008 season with a much
anticipated new ride and attraction package, a compelling value proposition and
an economic climate that should play into our favor as families seek
entertainment alternatives that are affordable and close to home."
Adjusted EBITDA(2) for the quarter was $1.8 million, compared to a loss of $6.3
million in the fourth quarter of 2006, reflecting increased revenue and stable
costs and expenses.
Twelve Month Results
For the year ended December 31, 2007, total revenue increased $27.1 million, or
3%, to $972.8 million from $945.7 million in the prior year.
Total revenue per capita for the year compared to the prior year increased
$0.99, or 3%, to $39.06 reflecting increased per capita guest spending and
sponsorship revenue. Increased per capita guest spending for the year of $0.52,
or 1%, over the prior year to $36.64 was driven by increased food and beverages,
parking, rentals and games revenue. Attendance for 2007 was 24.9 million, up 0.1
million compared to 2006 despite 40 (1.4%) fewer park operating days.
Total costs and expenses, including cost of sales, depreciation, amortization,
stock-based compensation and loss on fixed assets, increased $43.9 million to
$939.5 million for 2007 compared to 2006. The key drivers of the change were
increased advertising expense ($25.6 million), non-cash loss on fixed assets
($16.0 million) and park-wide labor ($15.3 million), partially offset by
prior-year management change costs ($13.9 million).
Net loss applicable to common stock for 2007 was $275.1 million, or $2.90 per
share - basic and diluted, compared to a net loss applicable to common stock of
$327.6 million, or $3.48 per common share - basic and diluted, in the prior
year. The decreased net loss of $52.5 million reflects a reduced loss from
discontinued operations ($88.5 million) and an increased loss from continuing
operations ($37.1 million) driven by higher costs and expenses.
Adjusted EBITDA for 2007 improved by $8.7 million over 2006 to $189.5 million,
reflecting the prior-year management change costs, the Company's share of EBITDA
in Dick Clark Productions, as well as the acquisition in July of the minority
interest of Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
Cash and Liquidity
As of December 31, 2007, the Company had $5.0 million outstanding on its $275
million revolving credit facility (excluding letters of credit in the amount of
$27.3 million) and had $28.4 million in unrestricted cash.
New Accounting Pronouncement
For the December 31, 2007 financial statements in the Form 10-K that the Company
will file this week, the balance sheet will be affected by the early adoption of
EITF Topic D-98 "Classification and Measurement of Redeemable Securities" as
expected to be amended at the March 12, 2008 meeting of the Emerging Issues Task
Force. The impact of the change will be to reflect the full redemption price of
the limited partnership units related to Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags
Over Texas that can be put to the Company in the future ($415.4 million) as
"mezzanine equity" (i.e., between liabilities and equity on the balance sheet),
with a reduction of minority interest ($32.4 million) and capital in excess of
par value ($383.0 million). As a result, the Company will report a stockholders'
deficit of $252.6 million. The accounting change will not affect the Company's
statement of operations or its statement of cash flows.
As disclosed in the Company's filings, the limited partners of the Six Flags
Over Georgia and Six Flags Over Texas partnerships have an annual opportunity to
put up to 5% of their units to the Company, accumulating to the extent that the
units are not put in any given year. Since the first annual opportunity in 1998,
of the $292.0 million worth of limited partnership units that could have been
put to the Company, the Company has only been required to purchase $18 million
worth. For 2008, the purchase price for the maximum number of units that the
limited partners could put to the Company totals $305.1 million, although the
Company does not expect a significant change in the volume of limited
partnership units that are put by the limited partners. The obligations to honor
puts by the limited partners, as well as annual cash distributions paid to the
limited partners and minimum capital expenditure requirements, are guaranteed by
the Company and two affiliates of Time Warner, Inc.
In the future, whenever limited partnership units are put to the Company, we
will account for the acquisition by reducing the redeemable minority interests
in mezzanine equity, with an offsetting increase to capital in excess of par
value, as well as recording the purchase of the assets and disbursement of cash.
In such event, the Company would benefit from the incremental share of earnings
and cash flows that come from the acquired units.
Conference Call
The Company will host a teleconference for analysts and investors today at 8:00
AM Eastern. Participants on the call will include President and Chief Executive
Officer, Mark Shapiro, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer,
Jeffrey R. Speed.
The teleconference will be broadcast live to all interested persons as a
listen-only webcast from the Company's website at
http://investors.sixflags.com/. The replay will be available until March 17,
2008.
About Six Flags
Six Flags, Inc. is the world's largest regional theme park company with 21 parks
across the United States, Mexico and Canada. Founded in 1961, Six Flags has
provided world class entertainment for millions of families with cutting edge,
record-shattering roller coasters and appointment programming with events like
the popular Thursday and Sunday Night Concert Series. Now 47 years strong, Six
Flags is recognized as the preeminent thrill innovator while reaching to all
demographics - families, teens, tweens and thrill seekers alike - with themed
attractions based on the Looney Tunes characters, the Justice League of America,
skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, The Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine. Six
Flags, Inc. is a publicly-traded corporation (NYSE:SIX) headquartered in New
York City.
Forward Looking Statements:
The information contained in this news release, other than historical
information, consists of forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange
Act. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements.
These risks and uncertainties include, among others, Six Flags' success in
implementing its new business strategy. Although Six Flags believes that the
expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can
give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct.
Important factors, including factors impacting attendance, such as local
conditions, events, disturbances and terrorist activities, risk of accidents
occurring at Six Flags' parks, adverse weather conditions, general economic
conditions (including consumer spending patterns), competition, pending,
threatened or future legal proceedings and other factors could cause actual
results to differ materially from Six Flags' expectations. Reference is made to
a more complete discussion of forward-looking statements and applicable risks
contained under the captions "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements" and "Risk Factors" in Six Flags' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2006, which is available free of charge on Six Flags'
website http://www.sixflags.com.
# # #
Media Contact: Sandra Daniels - (212) 652-9360
Investor Relations: William Schmitt - (203) 682-8200
- ----------
(1) Reported results from continuing operations for all periods presented
exclude park operations in Buffalo, New York; Columbus, Ohio; Concord,
California; Denver, Colorado; Houston, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma;
Sacramento, California; and Seattle, Washington. These parks have been
classified as discontinued operations. As of April 6, 2007, the sales of all of
the above-named parks were completed.
(2) See the following tables and Note 2 to those tables for a discussion of
EBITDA (Modified), Adjusted EBITDA, and the reconciliation to these amounts from
net loss.
Six Flags, Inc.
Three and Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2007 and 2006
(In Thousands, Except Per Share Amounts)
Statement of Operations (1) Three Months Ended Twelve Months Ended
December 31, December 31,
---------------------------- ----------------------------
2007 2006 2007 2006
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Revenue $ 112,134 $ 104,343 $ 972,780 $ 945,665
Costs and expenses (excluding
depreciation, amortization,
stock-based compensation
and loss on fixed assets) 113,538 114,721 745,092 720,520
Depreciation 35,169 33,295 137,538 131,416
Amortization 274 220 1,249 879
Stock-based compensation 6,296 2,676 12,525 15,728
Loss on fixed assets 31,718 6,953 43,062 27,057
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Income (loss) from operations (74,861) (53,522) 33,314 50,065
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Interest expense (net) 48,529 51,309 199,022 199,991
Minority interest in earnings (1,421) (5,179) 39,684 40,223
Equity in operations of partnerships (66) 486 502 948
Net loss on debt extinguishment - - 11,865 -
Other expense 6,816 24 20,122 11,560
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Loss from continuing operations
before income taxes (128,719) (100,162) (237,881) (202,657)
Income tax expense (2,087) (333) (6,203) (4,318)
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Loss from continuing operations
before discontinued operations and
cumulative effect of a change in
accounting principle (130,806) (100,495) (244,084) (206,975)
Discontinued operations 3,918 (89,233) (9,075) (97,605)
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Loss before cumulative effect of a
change in accounting principle (126,888) (189,728) (253,159) (304,580)
Cumulative effect of a change
in accounting principle - - - (1,038)
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Net loss $ (126,888) $ (189,728) $ (253,159) $ (305,618)
============ ============ ============ ============
Net loss applicable to
common stock $ (132,381) (195,221) $ (275,129) $ (327,588)
============ ============ ============ ============
Per share - basic:
Loss from continuing operations $ (1.43) $ (1.12) $ (2.81) $ (2.43)
Discontinued operations $ 0.04 $ (0.95) $ (0.09) $ (1.04)
Cumulative effect of a change in
accounting principle $ - $ - $ 0.00 $ (0.01)
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Net loss $ (1.39) $ (2.07) $ (2.90) $ (3.48)
============ ============ ============ ============
Per share - diluted:
Income (loss) from continuing
operations $ (1.43) $ (1.12) $ (2.81) $ (2.43)
Discontinued operations $ 0.04 $ (0.95) $ (0.09) $ (1.04)
Cumulative effect of a change in
accounting principle $ - $ - $ 0.00 $ (0.01)
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Net income (loss) $ (1.39) $ (2.07) $ (2.90) $ (3.48)
============ ============ ============ ============
Balance Sheet Data
(In Thousands)
December 31, December 31,
Balance Sheet Data 2007 2006
------------ ------------
Cash and cash equivalents
(excluding restricted cash) $ 28,388 $ 24,295
Total assets 2,945,319 3,187,616
Current portion of long-term debt 18,715 114,059
Long-term debt (excluding current
portion) 2,239,073 2,126,888
Redeemable minority interests (2) 415,350 418,145
Mandatory redeemable preferred
stock 285,623 284,497
Total stockholders' equity (deficit) (2) (252,620) (6,213)
Three Months Ended Twelve Months Ended
December 31, December 31,
---------------------------- ----------------------------
2007 2006 2007 2006
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
EBITDA (Modified) (3) $ (1,404) $ (10,378) $ 227,688 $ 225,145
Adjusted EBITDA (3) $ 1,820 $ (6,326) $ 189,502 $ 180,793
Weighted average shares
outstanding - basic 94,977 94,385 94,747 94,242
Weighted average shares
outstanding - diluted 94,977 94,385 94,747 94,242
Net cash provided by (used in)
operating activities $ (55,723) $ (75,174) $ (37,502) $ 9,804
The following table sets forth a reconciliation of net loss to EBITDA (Modified) and Adjusted EBITDA for the
periods shown (in thousands):
Three Months Ended Twelve Months Ended
December 31, December 31,
---------------------------- ----------------------------
2007 2006 2007 2006
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Net loss $ (126,888) $ (189,728) $ (253,159) $ (305,618)
Cumulative effect of a change in
accounting principle - - - 1,038
Discontinued operations (3,918) 89,233 9,075 97,605
Income tax expense 2,087 333 6,203 4,318
Other expense 6,816 24 20,122 11,560
Net loss on debt extinguishment - - 11,865 -
Equity in operations of partnerships (66) 486 502 948
Minority interest in earnings (1,421) (5,179) 39,684 40,223
Interest expense (net) 48,529 51,309 199,022 199,991
Loss on fixed assets 31,718 6,953 43,062 27,057
Amortization 274 220 1,249 879
Depreciation 35,169 33,295 137,538 131,416
Stock-based compensation 6,296 2,676 12,525 15,728
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
EBITDA (Modified) (1,404) (10,378) 227,688 225,145
Third party interest in EBITDA
of certain operations (4) 3,224 4,052 (38,186) (44,352)
------------ ------------ ------------ ------------
Adjusted EBITDA $ 1,820 $ (6,326) $ 189,502 $ 180,793
============ ============ ============ ============
NOTES
(1) Revenues and expenses of international operations are converted into U.S.
dollars on a current basis as provided by U.S. generally accepted
accounting principles ("GAAP").
(2) Reflects accounting change from the adoption of EITF Topic D-98.
(3) EBITDA (Modified), a non-GAAP measure, is defined as net income (loss)
before discontinued operations, income tax expense (benefit), other
expense, early repurchase of debt (formerly an extraordinary loss),
minority interest in earnings (losses), interest expense (net),
amortization, depreciation, stock-based compensation and gain (loss) on
disposal of assets. Adjusted EBITDA, also a non-GAAP measure, is defined
as EBITDA (Modified) minus interests of third parties in EBITDA of the
four parks, plus our interest in the EBITDA (Modified) of one hotel and
Dick Clark Productions, which are less than wholly owned. The Company
believes that EBITDA (Modified) and Adjusted EBITDA (collectively, "EBITDA
Based Measures") provide useful information to investors regarding the
Company's operating performance and its capacity to incur and service debt
and fund capital expenditures. The Company believes that the EBITDA-Based
Measures are used by many investors, equity analysts and rating agencies
as a measure of performance. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA is approximately
equal to "Consolidated Cash Flow" as defined in the indentures relating to
the Company's senior notes. Neither of the EBITDA-Based Measures is
defined by GAAP and neither should be considered in isolation or as an
alternative to net income (loss), income (loss) from continuing
operations, net cash provided by (used in) operating, investing and
financing activities or other financial data prepared in accordance with
GAAP or as an indicator of the Company's operating performance. EBITDA
(Modified) and Adjusted EBITDA as defined in this release may differ from
similarly titled measure presented by other companies.
(4) Represents interest of third parties in EBITDA of Six Flags Over Georgia,
Six Flags Over Texas, Six Flags White Water Atlanta, and Six Flags
Discovery Kingdom (formerly Six Flags Marine World), plus our interest in
the EBITDA (Modified) of one hotel and Dick Clark Productions, which are
less than wholly owned.