EuroDisney delays debt restructure
Theme park given until Sept. 30 to reach new agreement
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Company failed to make a Saturday restructuring deadline, already delayed from an earlier date, because it did not reach agreement with all of its lenders.
But the Walt Disney Co., its main shareholder with 39%, and the Caisse des Depots et Consignations, its main French creditor, have agreed to defer repayments and have given the theme park operator until Sept. 30 to reach a new agreement, EuroDisney said Monday.
The restructuring delay and the company's warning that its full-year loss to the end of September will be higher than expected sent the share price plummeting 12.9% to 31¢, its lowest level in a year.
Although its Disneyland Paris resort is Europe's most visited tourist attraction, EuroDisney is struggling because of the tourism slump that followed 9/11, barely six months after the opening of its costly second facility, the Walt Disney Studios theme park.
In June the company unveiled plans for a $300.9 million rights issue to help keep it afloat.
EuroDisney said there would be a "significant increase" in its year-end loss, blaming a 1% fall in revenues to $892.3 million for the first nine months to June 30.
Although theme park revenues were up 4% to $530 million, hotels and Disney Village revenues fell 5% to $421 million.
Putting a positive spin on the figures, chairman Andre Lacroix said they reflected "a relatively strong performance in an otherwise soft market for European travel and tourism."
