Merlin Entertainments Share Discussion Threads

[mornington crescent] 16/6/2015 10:13

The family of a man left paralysed after a freak accident on a roller coaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach say they are still waiting for answers almost nine months later.

Rob Sycamore broke his neck in three places while he was riding on the Grand National with his great-nephew during a family day out in the resort last year.

Doctors have told My Sycamore he will be paralysed from the neck down for the rest of his life.

[mornington crescent] 16/6/2015 10:03

Petition to sack Kay Burley following Alton Towers interview passes 57,000 signatures

[dlku] 08/6/2015 21:17

poor girl

the theme park had few visitors and car park looks vacant on bbc news

[mornington crescent] 08/6/2015 14:59

Alton Towers Crash Victim Has Leg Amputated

[salpara111] 08/6/2015 11:01

Buy recommendation in this weeks IC, basically agreeing with my synopsis that the financial impact of this accident will be negligible.
Given how far they have run up over the last year I don't expect a break to the £5 level anytime soon and as such I may well exit if I see another more attractive proposition but until then I am happy to hold.

[tenapen] 06/6/2015 15:52

You bet !

If you have ever been to the pleasure beach ! you will get it.





The Rides

[mornington crescent] 06/6/2015 15:08

Blackpool ?

omg

[tenapen] 06/6/2015 09:58

I and four others were booked in for Thursday 4th with fast-pass tickets. I will get the money back for the tickets but its the hotel room cost 3 x 2 nights and the circa £60 of fuel it cost me to get to Uttoxeter and back. Why didn't they just say its closed until xxxx rather than tell people at 3pm the day before when people from further away have already set off driving.

Ho Hum

No negative effect for us. We are looking forward to going back to AT and Blackpool as soon as possible

[dixi] 06/6/2015 09:52

Planes, trains, buses all crash the results are terrifying. It does, but it shouldn't happen. Yet we all still travel. I have been on board a 747 that had engine failure and had to dump its fuel before it could return and land safely. Yet the plane was repaired and I had to endure 9 hours on the same plane a few hour later. Same for rollercoasters - they should be so well engineered that they are totally safe - but what can in reality be 100% safe. I was at Alton Towers two weeks before this happened - I now feel lucky, even though we did not ride on the Smiler. We visit Drayton frequently too - but it really makes me think twice now. I would not ride on the Smiler out of principal - does this ride have a future or should it be dismantled? I hated every second of flying on that 747 after its engine problems. But other will have flown later with no knowledge. Who knows what affect this may have on theme parks generally, I guess in time it will be forgotten about. But not for the poor teens who just went out for a days fun.

[p@] 06/6/2015 08:40

I feel for the workers in charge of that ride, and wonder what wages they were paid for that responsibility.

[rarther] 06/6/2015 06:34

Surprised at the negligible impact on shareprice. If they have indeed ignored a fault (speculation) then their insurance will likely refuse to cover the fallout. Apart from that, people will be scared to go to their parks for many years and theme parks have mostly fixed costs so 10% less customers could be very damaging. Maybe i am the only person who likes having the ability to walk which would explain why this market is so stubborn.

[harry the haddock] 03/6/2015 12:38

doubt very many people will stay away for very long

[mornington crescent] 03/6/2015 12:29

alyo - pure fantasy on your part

[mornington crescent] 03/6/2015 12:28

Not many for long , I suspect

[p@] 03/6/2015 12:04

Probably have insurance,but a lot of people will stay away.

[alyo] 03/6/2015 11:56

The front four in the carriage are basically screwed for life. This is similar to the great ormond street hospital case where a doctor injected a child in the brain with glue by accident...where eventually they had to pay out £24m. This case is worse because Alton towers knew of the fault yet continued with the rollercoaster ride. Assuming the 4 guys at the front are handicapped for life, Alton towers will need to pay at least £100m to them. for the other twelve , minimum risk is prob £50m depending on injury . so total £150m needs to be given away to the victims.

[alyo] 03/6/2015 11:48

Massive payout coming. they should set aside at least £150m in compensation

[salpara111] 03/6/2015 11:22

While I do feel sorry for those who are injured, looking at it from a cold hard financial perspective this will have a negligible impact.
I have owned this from float so am sitting on a very nice profit and have to confess that when it got its FTSE 100 position I was sorely tempted to sell out but at present I struggle to find good alternatives so given how diversified their income stream is I am inclined to sit tight here for the moment.

[p@] 03/6/2015 11:08

Seems to be recovering a bit quick.

[leadersoffice] 02/6/2015 21:53

Park will be closed all day Wednesday

[leadersoffice] 02/6/2015 14:59

Air ambulance at the scene

[mymini] 02/6/2015 14:50

Four injured in Smiler crash at Alton Towers

[zedman_1] 14/5/2015 16:44

HL research note. Merlin has continued to make steady progress in a seasonally quiet first quarter. Revenue grew by 6.5% on a constant currency basis, reflecting like-for-like (LFL) growth of 3.3% and the impact of new site openings. Foreign exchange movements provided a mildly positive impact, with reported revenue growing by 7.2%. Merlin was up against tough comparatives this quarter - in the same period last year LFL revenues grew by 12.0%. However, the group did enjoy a tailwind from favourable weather in Europe across the early season holiday periods, while the two US LEGOLAND Parks, which are open year-round, also benefited from promotional activity related to 'The LEGO Movie'. The group has an attractive pipeline of new openings scheduled for the remainder of the year, and is positive on the outlook, with full year expectations remaining unchanged. The shares were trading around 1% higher in early morning trading.Our view:Merlin is driven by global consumer spending, it has attractive assets, and their brands seem unlikely to go out of fashion in a hurry; Madame Tussauds, has been trading for over 200 years, and now that the velvet ropes have been taken away, it's enjoying a new lease of life as the world's best place to take celebrity "selfies". The attractions can be rolled out to new locations over time and the group should be capable of capitalising on long term economic growth, almost wherever it happens.Sixty percent of revenues were earned outside the UK last year. At home, Merlin operates the larger UK theme parks, including Alton Towers, plus the smaller, Midway group of attractions that include Sea Life Centres, Dungeons and Madame Tussauds. The latter three brands have been exported internationally, but perhaps the company's greatest asset is the right to operate Legoland parks. Kirkbi, the family vehicle for the real life Lego people swapped their theme parks business for a 30% stake in Merlin a few years ago and the group has been steadily expanding the number of parks.These days, Merlin is second only to Disney as an operator of visitor attractions and the group earned revenues of £1.25bn last year, generating operating profits of £311m in the process. The group has over 100 attractions, spread across twenty three nations and four continents. There aren't that many more discretionary purchases than a trip to a tourist attraction, so we think that Merlin is well placed to benefit from consumers finding they have a little bit more spare cash than they had expected.Growth comes from increasing visitor numbers per attraction, boosting spend per head and by growing the number of locations each brand trades from. The cost of growth is contained by leasing their main sites to property investors, so that Merlin only actually own the branded assets, but have long term leases over their operating locations. We like the model, and the family behind Lego have clearly given it a big vote of confidence by swapping their parks for a stake in Merlin.Market analysts are forecasting that, after 2014, when currencies held earnings roughly flat, Merlin will compound its earnings per share at over 10% per annum for the next three years. That's before anyone has had a chance to update their numbers for the impact of stronger GDP growth stemming from the fall in oil prices. There seems to be plenty of potential for rolling out the estate internationally. Put simply, with 106 operating locations around the world, only a small percentage of the world's population go anywhere near a Merlin property each year. The brands are successful, and should be able to support many more locations. Merlin can add new brands too, as evidenced by the forthcoming Shrek-based Midway concept, which opens soon in London. Legoland Discovery Centres leverage the Parks, taking the brand into everyday locations like shopping centres, where the footfall (and pram-roll) of small, enthusiastic people is strong. Madame Tussauds has shown how a brand can develop from a local institution into a global revenue generator. Revenues per asset can be structurally increased as the addition of hotels to the theme parks demonstrates.Merlin simply has lots of potential to grow organically by taking its brands to new places and new people. That could support organic growth for years to come, given the existing pipeline of new openings. The market seems to be latching onto the potential for visitor attraction operators to grow longer term, right now; we notice US theme park operator Six Flags has seen its stock rally more than 30% since the autumn of last year, to stand on over 32x prospective earnings, yet it lacks the diversity of brands and geographies that Merlin can boast.

[stevenbetts] 14/5/2015 09:58

What do we think of glenn earlam leaving for dll?

[eaaxs06] 13/4/2015 13:08

Yes, I noticed that too.

I think you called that correctly, earlier on Friday.