Now is the time for theme park Six Flags to change its business model and shore up returns from its real estate, according to activist investor Land & Buildings Investment Management.
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The firm, which holds a 2% stake in the theme park operator, believes it could create additional returns for investors by splitting the company into two intertwined businesses, Land & Buildings founder and Chief Investment Officer Jonathan Litt said in a letter to shareholders published Friday.
Six Flags' stock price has been sagging, dropping by roughly 55% since the start of the year. Its shares hit a 52-week low on Thursday, with a market value of $2.1B, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Land & Buildings has been advocating since 2022 for Six Flags to adopt a model creating a subsidiary company that owns the business’s revenue-generating properties that would be separate from the operating company.
The theme park operator’s stock could see an immediate 50% upside under the operating company-property company structure, Litt argued in Friday’s letter.
The agreement would allow it to unlock real estate values through a spinout into a real estate investment trust or through sale-leaseback agreements, the activist investor said.
A REIT arrangement for a Six Flags properties business would trade at a higher multiple, Litt’s letter says. The theme park company should also explore selling its real estate to private equity firms or other real estate companies, with the potential to generate as much as $6B via sales.
Six Flags sold some properties in 2023 and announced it was pursuing a merger with fellow theme park Cedar Fair. The merger closed in July last year, but Litt doubled down on his previous criticism of the deal in his Friday letter. Its merger has hurt the company’s revenues, Litt said.
“Unfortunately, the performance post-merger has not only proven us right, it’s been far worse than we even anticipated,” he wrote.
The theme park’s earnings have been hit by poor weather conditions this summer, during a period when customers normally buy passes. The company is also competing with larger parks, like Disney and Universal.
The theme park has also been pursuing plans to sell more properties over the past few years.
In May, it announced it would close a theme park in Maryland, marketing a 500-acre site in Prince George’s County for redevelopment. It also plans to close its Santa Clara, California, location in 2027 when its lease expires, People reported in June.
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