Ardent Leisure losses rise as guests fail to return to Dreamworld

Ardent Leisure's has announced that its losses for the first-half of the financial year rose to $21.8 million as guest numbers remain stagnant at its flagship Dreamworld attraction.

With damaging revelations about the Gold Coast theme park emerging during the trading period at the Coronial inquest into the deaths of four guests at Dreamworld in October 2016, Ardent's first-half net loss blew out by 40% to $21.8 million.

With total group revenue down 14.6% to $226.7 million the company said while theme park visitor numbers stagnated during the inquest hearings, higher per-person spending was recorded.

Ardent's sell-off of its marinas and ten-pin bowling businesses meant $75 million less revenue flowed into company during the July to December period, while another $22.8 million writedown was made against the value of Dreamworld, following a $75 million impairment against the theme park in last financial year.

A further $5.3 million in incident-related costs were booked for the half as well as $2 million in restructuring costs.

Ardent also said it was pleased with performance of its US-based Main Event business, where revenue rose by 14.3% to $US139.1 million, though the like-for-like sales growth of 0.7% was nearly half the rate from a year ago.

The company also maintained that the much delayed opening of its new $17 million Sky Voyager flying theatre ride will happen before July, having previously flagged a summer 2018 opening. However, Ardent said there are no further major attractions planned at Dreamworld despite previous plans to expand.

In a statement, the company advised “we are in the advanced stages of establishing increased funding that the board believes will provide the capital required to execute on the medium term growth strategies of both the Main Event and theme parks businesses.”

The board has declared there will be no interim dividend, having paid 2.0 cents per share a year ago, in line with its intention to invest in theme parks and Main Event.

Ardent reported a net loss of $90.7 million in the 2018 financial year, and a $63 million loss in 2017.