Euro Disney SCA First Half Results

[dagobert]

Euro Disney SCA reported the First Half Results for 2009:

EURO DISNEY S.C.A.
Fiscal Year 2009
Reports First Half Results
Six Months Ended March 31, 2009

• Record attendance at 7.1 million and strong occupancy at 86%, despite a shift in the  Easter vacation period
• Resort revenues down 4% to € 554 million, due to lower guest spending and a 3 percentage point decrease in occupancy
• Real Estate revenues down € 20 million to € 5 million, driven by one significant sale in the prior year
• Net loss increased by € 42 million to € 85 million due to lower revenues, as costs and expenses remained stable

Maybe they can reach a new record attendance at the end of the year.

[never2old]

They also mention lower attendance figures from Spain and the UK (not surprising, since they're two of the countries most hit by the recession), partly offset by more French visitors.

Lower revenues are also linked to more special offers

[lil-shawn]

this is really ironically, in 2001 less visitors because of september 11 and now
we have the world wide financial crisis. sometimes i think there is a curse  of this
resort...

but i hope the best and maybe the whole thing turn out good at the end of the year...

[Anthony]

Record attendance despite the Easter holidays not falling within this period is pretty amazing. However, the revenues certainly show all those silly €1 tickets and €1 annual passes for children aren't the best way of achieving that. I mean really, €1?! Why not 10? That'd still be an incredible offer.

But I suppose that's the way they do it these days... like setting a ridiculously high "RRP" on the Disney Hotels and then piling on the 40% discounts so that it's vaguely affordable.

It's interesting that people are obviously still visiting despite the financial crisis - so they must think the parks are worth their money - yet the Hotels have dropped...

[Elaine]

That makes perfect sense to me - I'm one of those people who can no longer afford to stay onsite (when I first started going to DLRP 3 years ago I used to wonder how folk managed to afford the associated hotels  :shock: ), but I still want to visit the resort.

I guess I just started looking around at value for money for my accommodation, and at the standard prices for the onsite hotels, unfortunately, I just don't think they are anymore.

I don't consider the park shops, restaurants etc prices have increased much at all, and yes, in the UK we are now suffering because of the weak pound against the euro, but I just have to factor that in - thats certainly not Disney's fault   .

Elaine

[Javey74]

It's interesting that people are obviously still visiting despite the financial crisis - so they must think the parks are worth their money - yet the Hotels have dropped...

Also helped by the fact that they are also getting quite a few of the WDW and Disneyland tourists all over Europe, because of the hike in American airfares and the dollar rate drop, so a lot of those Disney lovers have opted for a closer Disneyland vacation in the way of DLRP..  :wink:  

[peterpanfan1953]

Glad to see DLP having record attendance... I went for the first time in Feb and absolutely fell in love with it (live in the US and have 30+ trips to WDW, 5+ trips to DL) because I knew I would be traveling to Europe at least a few times in the next year I got an Annual Pass but that leads me to one of my gripes and not being surprised at the resorts not being full....

The "normal" resort rates are ridiculous... I was trying to price out a week long trip in Oct and went to the DLP site to get a rough estimate of cost... it came back with a package price (I still can't find a way to get a room only price on the website) which was high... but knowing that was hotel + tickets and that I would get a 20% discount on the room with the Annual Pass I thought the final rate would be decent.  I had my bf call to get the room only rate with ap (he is in the UK so easier for him to call) and the price they came back with was only slightly less than the package price which made no sense to me... it was less than 10% off the package price... called back to find out what was going on to find out that was because the "package" price was 40% off the normal package price and the normal room only rate was something insane for DLPs equivalent of a "value" resort (Santa Fe) and I was getting 20% off the insane rate.

I VERY much wanted to stay on site... and was willing to pay extra to stay on site but this made me look around... and I ended up finding a room at one of their partner hotels for less than half the cost of the AP room rate at the Santa Fe.

I know they have been having AP deals that are 30-40% off but those are only for a month or two out and since I am coming from overseas I need to plan things farther in advance than that.

I would think I would be a target audience for them... I love Disney... I am willing to pay more to stay on site and I spend a good amount of money on food and souvenirs when I come but I couldn't bring myself to pay twice as much to stay in the Santa Fe let alone how much more it would cost to stay in one of the other resorts.

[dagobert]

I'm a little bit worried, but I think last year they made also a loss during the first half year and ended up with a profit.

[Willow]

Don't Forget that the 2nd Half results will include the very busy summer and Easter seasons. So results will always be better in the 2nd half.

The results aren't grea but they could have been a lot worse.

[andrewuk]

My thought is that the 'space mountain effect' from the tower of terror can't last for too much longer until the attendances start to fall off again like they did a few years after space mountain opened. If they can't make a profit now, what will they do then? But yes, I take the point that they might well end up in profit again this year.

[Javey74]

Can someone clarify something for me. It was said that DLRP were 2 Billion in debt, but is this in dollars or euro's, since I've read quite a few posts on the matter and people are using both, and for some reason no-one has picked up on it.  

There is a big difference between the two conversion rates, so which one is correct..  :?: Obviously the debt could have decreased a little by now..  

[smurfy74]

here you go javey its euro  

i took this from their corporate site

The Group's principal indebtedness decreased € 11.2 million to € 1,967.8 million as of March 31, 2009
compared to € 1,979.0 million as of September 30, 2008. The decrease is primarily related
to the € 42.9 million repayment of borrowings in the First Half 2009, partly offset by the € 25.0 million
deferral of royalties and management fees of the fiscal year 2009 due to The Walt Disney Company

[Javey74]

here you go javey its euro  

i took this from their corporate site

The Group's principal indebtedness decreased € 11.2 million to € 1,967.8 million as of March 31, 2009
compared to € 1,979.0 million as of September 30, 2008. The decrease is primarily related
to the € 42.9 million repayment of borrowings in the First Half 2009, partly offset by the € 25.0 million
deferral of royalties and management fees of the fiscal year 2009 due to The Walt Disney Company

Thanks for clearing that one up Smurfy74..  :wink:

So it's € 1,979.0 million, converting that is easier than ever now as here in the UK it's virtually £1 for €1, so you might aswell say £1,979,0 Million..  :wink: Looks like it's going to take a while to get that to zero..  :shock:  Well unless the Saudi Prince steps in..  :mrgreen: