Finance: Six Flags completes sale of Geauga Lake

Posted at 9:32 PM EDT (0132 GMT)

Apr. 8th, 2004 -- Cedar Fair, L.P. has completed the purchase of Geauga Lake amusement park. They will assume the control of the Aurora, Ohio park tomorrow, April 9th. A new website has been launched and some rides have been renamed.

Press Release courtesy of Cedar Fair, L.P.

SANDUSKY, OHIO, April 8, 2004 -- Cedar Fair, L.P. (NYSE: FUN) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, located near Cleveland, Ohio, from Six Flags, Inc. in a cash transaction valued at approximately $145 million.

Six Flags Worlds of Adventure is a family-oriented theme park situated on approximately 690 acres, including a 50-acre spring-fed lake. The park offers its guests a wide variety of rides and attractions, including 10 roller coasters, several children’s areas, a water park, and various live shows, and entertains more than 1.5 million guests each year, principally from the Cleveland/Akron, Youngstown and Pittsburgh markets.

The transaction involves the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of the park, including the adjacent hotel and campground, but excludes all animals currently located at the park, which are being retained by Six Flags. Cedar Fair will assume the complete operations and management of the park as of April 9.

The Partnership also reported that it has completed a new long-term financing arrangement to fund a portion of the cash purchase price. A private placement of $75 million has been arranged to provide funds for terms of seven to eleven years at a fixed rate of 4.72%. The Partnership has funded the balance of the purchase price through an expansion of its revolving credit facility, but intends to enter the equity market later this year to complete the permanent funding of the acquisition.

Commenting on the transaction, Dick Kinzel, Cedar Fair’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, said, “With this acquisition we have added another successful operation to the Cedar Fair family of parks in a market we already know very well. The park offers many marketing and operational synergies, and provides us with a new source of earnings and future cash flow to grow distributions for our unitholders.”

Kinzel also noted that the park, which has been renamed Geauga Lake, is on schedule to open for the 2004 season on May 1. Further details on Geauga Lake’s 2004 operating schedule, admission prices and more, are available on the park’s new web site, www.geaugalake.com.

Cedar Fair is a publicly traded partnership which owns and operates amusement parks and water parks across the country. The Partnership’s other amusement parks are Cedar Point, located on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo; Knott’s Berry Farm near Los Angeles in Buena Park, California; Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom near Allentown, Pennsylvania; Valleyfair near Minneapolis/St. Paul; Worlds of Fun, located in Kansas City, Missouri; and Michigan’s Adventure near Muskegon, Michigan. The Partnership’s water parks are located near San Diego and in Palm Springs, California, and adjacent to Cedar Point, Knott’s Berry Farm and Worlds of Fun. Cedar Fair also operates Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota under a management contract.