Six Flags Says Roller Coaster Temporary Shutdown Should Have No Material Impact on Financial Performance.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Six Flags For the national flags of Texas, see . Six Flags (NYSE: SIX) is the world's largest chain of amusement parks and theme parks and is headquartered in New York City. There are 20 such parks run by Six Flags. Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :PKS PKS Penalty Kicks Saved (soccer; goalie save) PKS Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (Indonesia) PKS Phi Kappa Sigma (international male fraternity) PKS Pallister-Killian Syndrome ) said today that the temporary shutdown of its Kingda Ka Kingda Ka is a roller coaster located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey, USA. At its opening on May 21, 2005 it became the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world, claiming the title from Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point. roller coaster is not expected to materially affect its financial performance and that the company remains comfortable with its previous guidance of $300 million in Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) A metric used to show a company's profitability, but not its cash flow. EBITDA became popular in the 1980s to show the potential profitability of leveraged buyouts, but has become (1) for 2005. The company today posted a notice on its website that the coaster would be closed for several weeks. The company said the roller coaster, which opened in May at its Six Flags Great Adventure Park in Jackson, N.J., was shut down on June 8, after a malfunction mal·func·tion v. 1. To fail to function. 2. To function improperly. n. 1. Failure to function. 2. Faulty or abnormal functioning. during a routine test run. The ride had no passengers at the time and no one was injured. Repairs to the ride, including the fabrication fabrication (fab´rikā´sh  n),n the construction or making of a restoration. of several custom parts, are underway. "Safety of course is our number one priority and we are above all committed to the safe operation of all of our attractions," said Kieran Burke, chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Six Flags. "At the same time we are eager to offer this spectacular roller coaster experience to our guests and are working diligently to bring Kingda Ka back on line soon." The company indicated that the shutdown could have a negative impact on attendance at this particular park over the next several weeks. However, it said the strong performance year-to- date across its theme park portfolio with attendance up 4.4% through last Sunday and season pass sales up 18%, the positive impact of several other new attractions and Kingda Ka's likely return to operation with much of the summer season left, led it to conclude the roller coaster's temporary shutdown would not have a material effect on its performance. "Although we are disappointed to have this attraction off line, we can assure our guests that there is still plenty to do and see at our Six Flags Great Adventure park, with over 60 other rides, including 12 other roller coasters While there have been hundreds of different roller coasters built, there have been just a few that were notable for specific reasons. Some reasons include:
Six Flags, Inc. is the world's largest regional theme park company. 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. Although the Company 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, including local conditions, events, disturbances and terrorist activities, accidents occurring at the Company's parks, adverse weather conditions, general economic conditions (including consumer spending Consumer demand or consumption is also known as personal consumption expenditure. It is the largest part of aggregate demand or effective demand at the macroeconomic level. patterns), competition, pending, threatened or future legal proceedings All actions that are authorized or sanctioned by law and instituted in a court or a tribunal for the acquisition of rights or the enforcement of remedies. , the time involved in returning Kingda Ka to service, including obtaining all necessary governmental authorizations and other factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's 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 "Business - Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. for the year ended December 31, 2004, which is available free of charge on the Company's website (www.sixflags.com). This release and prior releases are available on the Company's Worldwide Web site at www.sixflags.com. You may register to receive Six Flags, Inc. future press releases or to download a complete Digital Investor Kit(TM) including press releases, regulatory filings and corporate materials by clicking on the "Digital Investor Kit(TM)" icon at www.kcsa.com. (1) EBITDA (Modified) is defined as net loss before discontinued operations Discontinued operations Divisions of a business that have been sold or written off and that no longer are maintained by the business. , income tax expense (benefit), other expense, early repurchase of debt (formerly extraordinary loss), minority interest in earnings (losses), interest expense (net), non-cash compensation, amortization and depreciation. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA (Modified) minus the interest of third parties in EBITDA of the four parks that are less than wholly owned. The Company believes that EBITDA (Modified) and Adjusted EBITDA (collectively, the "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 relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc the Company's senior notes. Neither of the EBITDA-Based Measures is defined by accounting principles generally accepted in the Unites States ("GAAP GAAP See: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles GAAP See generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). ") and neither should be considered in isolation or as an alternative to net income (loss), income (loss) from continuing operations continuing operations Parts of a business that are expected to be maintained as an ongoing segment of an overall business operation. Income and losses from continuing operations are reported separately if any segments have been discontinued during the , 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. The Company is not able as of this date to provide a reliable estimate of its income tax benefit and other income (expense) for the year ending December 31, 2005. Therefore, a reliable estimate of its net loss for that year is not available. Accordingly, the following table sets forth a reconciliation of expected income from operations for 2005 to expected EBITDA (Modified) and expected Adjusted EBITDA for such year. Since the EBITDA-Based Measures are calculated before income taxes and other expense, the absence of estimates with respect to these items would not affect the expected EBITDA-Based Measures presented. For 2005, expected interest expense (net) is approximately $185,000,000 and expected minority interest in earnings is approximately $39,000,000.
Year
Ending
December
31, 2005
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Income from operations $ 186,300
Non-cash compensation 800
Amortization 900
Depreciation 156,000
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EBITDA (Modified) 344,000
Third-party interest in EBITDA of certain parks(a) 44,000
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Adjusted EBITDA $ 300,000
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(a) Represents interest of third parties in EBITDA of Six Flags Over
Georgia, Six Flags Over Texas, Six Flags White Water Atlanta and
Six Flags Marine World.
(1) See Note 1 for a definition of Adjusted EBITDA and the required reconciliation. |
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