Dreamworld closure drags Ardent Leisure to $49 million half year loss

Ardent Leisure, the operator of Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld, has reported a half-year financial loss of $49.3 million, largely as a result of the ride incident that led to the deaths of four people last October.

The results were impacted by the 45-day closure of the park following the tragedy and $95.2 million property, plant and equipment write-down, goodwill impairment and incident costs associated with the incident.

Ardent Leisure, the operator of the Gold Coast's Dreamworld theme park, has reported half year core earnings at $12.8 million compared to $30.5 million in the prior period.

Ardent Leisure Chief Executive Deborah Thomas said in a statement to the ASX  “the effects of this tragedy will be felt for some time and there is much healing still to take place.

"During the shutdown the [company] commissioned and commenced a comprehensive park-wide operations and safety review process."

Attendance dropped 27.1%, with 906,378 people attending, compared to 1,243,832 in the prior period.

Other one-off events that affected Ardent's earnings included a five-month closure for refurbishment of Kingpin Crown, and the loss of two months worth of earnings from its Goodlife Health Clubs division after its sale in October.

Ardent said its theme park division recorded total revenues of $41.8 million while its Main Event Entertainment arm recorded revenues of $US102.1 million.

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4th January 2017 - DREAMWORLD LOOKS TO OFFERS AND EXTENDED OPENING HOURS TO ENCOURAGE VISITS 

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10th December 2016 - GUESTS TRICKLE BACK AS DREAMWORLD REOPENS 

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