Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun Received a $3.4 Billion Offer

The parent company of Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun received a $3.4 billion offer from Sea Worlds Entertainment Inc. to buy the amusement park owner. Sea Worlds offered to pay around $60 a share in an unsolicited, non binding proposal for Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., based in Sandusky, Ohio.

Cedar Fair indicated that it is in consultation with legal and financial advisers and that it is reviewing the Sea Worlds offer.Cedar Fair reported almost $148 million in net income for the third quarter of 2021, a 5% gain from the same-period revenue for the company in 2019.

During the first three quarters of 2021, the company lost more than $21 million, compared with a loss of $485 million in the same period during 2020.At the end of September, the company had about $3 billion in debt and about $563 million in cash on hand, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.In recent years, there have been many attempts by theme park chains to buy each other out. In 2019, Cedar Fair rebuffed a $4 billion offer from Six Flags for around $70 per share.

U.K.-based Merlin Entertainments, which owns Legoland and Madame Tussauds, quashed reports in 2017 that it was considering a bid for Sea Worlds. Sea current bid reportedly offers Cedar Fair $60 per share, or an enterprise value of around $5.8 billion. Expectations are that attendance rates will continue to rise and even surpass prepandemic levels by next year, meaning the bid could be too low to entice Cedar Fair to agree.