I'm not so sure. Merlin are doing a lot of restructuring and changes |
Got to be Merlin I think Crootes... |
Agreed - they've probably been selling for a while.
On a side note, I thought we would have known about the "mystery" buyer of the i360 by now. |
That fund looks like it's in trouble: -30% over last year, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's winding down generally. Would have taken a while to sell that many shares, might explain some of the recent weakness. |
Helium bought back in April 2021 at around 45p ... held for 3 years and now sold half their holding at 20p. What a trade. |
It's actually remarkable that they get 200,000+ customers a year all paying £20 and they can't make a profit. Great asset. A very different animal but I would note that the most profitable tourist attraction of all time in London is The London Eye. £30mln of annual profit. But I also note it's owned by Merlin. And I have to say they would be more likely to be the preferred bidder if they're interested. LJ and PIER shareholders don't have deep enough pockets and he has made himself toxic among the Brightonian political class. Hope I'm wrong |
Hi guys. Brighton Council seem to have agreed to take a share of future income from the new i360 owner in return for writing off the outstanding loans and debt.
...in addition I note that the Fixed Assets / Structure of i360 has been written down by a Director of the i360 company in Administration to a value of £200k in the Statement of Affairs which suggests to me the purchase price of whoever is going to acquire the attraction will not be a large one.
The future income share element will seemingly also be small,
"And if we proceed with the recommended buyer that has come forward, the city council will get a small share of future revenues."
...5% or less I guess so whoever gets ownership could do well if they can crank up the revenue (good weather permitting as the croots will point out) and perhaps reduce admin costs as Ijamlon has mentioned. |
Another possible negative factor is that LJ's sometimes aggressively megaphoned right-wing libertarian anti-vax views (look at his Twitter feed) are totally at odds with the Brighton and Hove left / green political majority as you can imagine. Not sure they will be keen to do him any favours or see him boosted. Hopefully I'm wrong. |
Hi Jeff
thanks for the post and links by the way |
very interesting.
If PIER take over its potentially awesome news if the deal is Ok. seems i360 was just badly run.
Maybe Merlin is a bidder too?. have recently thought that PIER ( or one of their assest) is also a target for Merlin. |
An interesting development. i360 account filings show that in 2023 it had £5mln of revenue and £1mln cost of sales. But this gross profit is wiped out by what seems to be an excessive £4mln of admin expenses, never mind the interest expense. I don't know the whole story but there could be a case that if BPG can get the asset cheap and no debt and use its existing admin functions to, say, halve the admin line.....well let's see, but it could be significant. |
Brightons i360 attraction gone into administration with the local council agreeing a debt write off:'
Mattman in the Comments suggests Brighton Pier Group are the preferred bidders which would tie in with LJ's comments from a few years ago:-
New operator to be revealed soon:- |
Hi Davidosh
regarding visitor numbers its hard to say as its purely down to weather if people visit. |
Hi davidosh,
Around 90% of the stores are franchised. franchisees do set their own prices but are encouraged to stick within a region price band.
if the pier are charging local residents they should offer a yearly one.
fact remains, I think with the NIC increase and NMW there will be a huge rise in currently free-admisson places that now need to charge. |
Thecroots....Surely McDonalds set the prices nationally not individual franchisees?
As for the piers maybe all of us here should keep a list of all the piers in the UK that we know and list the prices charged so we know how we compare?
In Brighton why do they not sell a complete season pass for say £10 or £15 so they do not have to pay £2 every time just show their resident pass. Some people on holiday or regular weekend visitors may try to buy one of those instead but do we really care if it brings in extra early season revenue and of course repeat visits for value seekers. |
that makes sense Ijamlon
it's good that the shares were tight on Friday hence the large spread and full ask, and over ask even though the trades were small.
February 2024 had the worst rainfall on record with a fair few full closures at the Pier so surely Feb this year can't be any worse you would have thought... |
Slight complication for me is that I am a regulated fund manager and need various sign-offs for personal dealing. I have to commit to specific share amounts and timings for approval. Very hard in these types of markets. |
If they are short Ijamlon, id buy what you can before it likely moves up. The small couple of buys have gone thru at over asking price..
Tried a dummy buy and the most it will let me buy is 10,000 shares. |
Tried to buy £5k in my SIPP through HL. No chance. £1k, also no. I decided not to bother buying the £250 of shares on offer! |
This might be some good news :
"Ryanair said today it would cut flights at seven regional airports in Spain this summer due to what it called "excessive fees" levied by state-controlled airport operator Aena.
The airline will stop operating in the cities of Jerez and Valladolid and will reduce the number of flights to and from Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, Zaragoza, Santander and the airport of Asturias.
Overall, it will reduce capacity on 12 routes by 18% and cancel some 800,000 passenger seats compared with the previous summer, the carrier added in a statement." |
12% rally on about £7k of volume! Not complaining. I will buy some tomorrow and do my bit! |
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