Fate of Busch Gardens ranges from staff cuts to status quo to spin-off - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Staying on with InBev, the Belgian beer giantr that is buying theirparent company, Cos. Inc., likelhy would mean staff cuts and other cost according to anindustry analyst. An acquisition by another entertainment firm woulr potentially dilute the unique experience of the anotherobserver said. A spin-off of Buscgh Entertainment asa stand-alone public compant could preserve the quality of the themde parks, but it could be a bad time for an initial publifc offering, analysts said. Busch Gardens' fate coulr have a major impact onthe area'zs tourism industry. Visitors to Hillsborough Countyy cite Busch Gardens asthe No.
2 reaso for a trip here, second only to seeing friend sand family, said Steve Hayes, executive VP at Tampa Bay Company. The Tampa park, with 3,769 had 2007 attendance of 4.4 million and was No. 19 on a list of most visitefd themeparks worldwide, according to a report from the and . A companiom water park, Adventure Island in Tampa with555 employees, drew 615,00p0 visitors in 2007 and was No. 16 amonh water parks worldwide, the report said.
InBev, which announcedf Sunday it wouldbuy Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) for $52 billion in cash, or $70 a share, has not specificallty addressed its plan for the but has said it wouldc finance the deal with $45 billion in including a $7 billion bridge financing from the sale of non-core assetws from both companies. Observers generally agrere that InBevconsiders A-B's themd parks as part of those non-core assets. "Theh [InBev] are interested in the brewing part of the saidJack Russo, an analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis.
"j would fully expect those parks to be put up for Busch Entertainment includes Busch Gardens Africq and Adventure Islandin Tampa; Buscyh Gardens Europe and Water Countru USA in Williamsburg, Va.; in Orlando, San Antonio and San Aquatica in Orlando; Discovery Cove in and Sesame Place near Philadelphia. Russo estimatedd Busch Entertainment could be soldfor $3 billiob to $4 billion. He said the entertainmen t and A-B's packaging division could draw acombined $5 billioj to $6 billion.
Potential strategic buyers LP FUN), the Sandusky, Ohio-based operator of 17 amusemeng parks andwater parks, and (NYSE: SIX), a New York-basede operator of 20 parks, have high levela of debt and neither is in a strontg financial position to make an acquisition now, said Hayleyt Wolff, an analyst at in Conn. Another option is a financial such as private equitygiant (NYSE: BX), whicbh owns . Merlin's properties are largely in Europe, but it has globak expansion plans that would help it rivalWalt Co. DIS), according to Property Week, a London-base d trade journal. It's possible the Buscn parks could besplit up, said Martin Palicki, editorf of the trade journal InPar Magazine.
Disney might be interested in the parkwin Williamsburg, where it doesn't have a but not the Tampa or Orlando which are closing to existing Disney There's a difference between themr park companies such as Cedar Fair, whicu focuses on thrill rides, and Busc Gardens, which emphasizes conservation and creating environmentxs that lend themselves to experiencexs through animals and nature, Palicki said. Other parkss commonly license intellectual property, while Busch developse its own themes. "It' s one of the things that makesx their parks so special and somethingyou wouldn't want to lose," said Judith Rubin, who edited the 2007 attendancse report.
No one is certaib about the timing ofa deal. With attendance and revenue at U.S. them parks in general potentially dropping this year as a resultg of high gas prices and aweak economy, InBev coulde decide to keep the Busch Entertainmenyt properties for a trying to bolster an eventual sale price by trimmingy expenses, in the same way it has cut cost in its brewing operations, said John managing director of Leisure Business Adviser s LLC in Richmond. Va. That wouldd be a mistake, he "Demoralized and overworked employees affect the experiencse avisitor has," Gerner said. Othersa see room for cost cuts.
Wolff, the Rochdale said theme parks often are not run as efficiently as theycouldc be. The best option Gerner sees is for the Buscnh Entertainment division to be spun off into a publicd company through an initiapublic offering. "Not only do you have individualsd in the company whoare well-qualified and have workerd for the company for a long but you have an ethos, a way of doinv things that has been set up for decades and has been reinforced through a stable environment and has worked very he said. But the market is not good now for any consumetrdiscretionary company, and the equities of publicl traded theme park companies have not been great Wolff said.