Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. is set to acquire two water parks and an accompanying resort in Texas.
The Sandusky-based owner of Cedar Point will pay $261 million in cash for Schlitterbahn Waterpark and Resort New Braunfels and Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston. In addition, Cedar Fair secured the right to pay $6 million for a 40-acre site in Kansas City, Kan., that previously operated as a Schlitterbahn water park.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to bring these two award-winning Texas water parks into the Cedar Fair family,” Cedar Fair CEO Richard Zimmerman said. “These properties represent new markets for us with attractive demographics in the growing Central Texas region, and they align with our strategy to identify compelling opportunities to accelerate our growth and profitability. The investments we have made over the past five years to strengthen our back-of-house and customer-facing systems will support a smooth integration of these properties by ensuring a premium guest experience, strong team collaboration and superior execution.”
In 2018, Cedar Fair entertained 25.9 million guests, reported $1.35 billion in annual net revenues and generated Adjusted EBITDA of $468 million. The two Texas water parks and the resort entertained 1.2 million guests in 2018 and generated annual revenues of approximately $68 million. Cedar Fair expects the two Texas locations to earn profits in line with Cedar Fair’s results after management implements a number of growth and operational initiatives at the parks over the next two years.
Following this transaction, Cedar Fair’s portfolio will consist of 15 parks, resort accommodations totaling more than 2,000 rooms across six parks, more than 600 luxury RV sites across four parks, and two marinas.
The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2019. Cedar Fair intends to finance the transaction through additional long-term borrowings.
Perella Weinberg Partners is serving as financial adviser to Cedar Fair, and Squire Patton Boggs is providing legal counsel.
