Parques Reunidos has acquired Belantis

[CSLKennyNI]

It seems Parques Reunidos is about to claim another victim... I mean acquire another park.

PR has started a merger process for the indirect acquisition of EVENT PARK GmbH, the operator of Belantis, at the Federal Cartel Office. If there are no major objections from the authorities the takeover should be complete by the end of February.
Belantis in East Germany opened in 2003. The park allegedly isn't doing well financially at the moment and doesn't see much investment.

http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nac...-kontrollerwerb-der-event-park-gmbh-d-019.htm

 

[Pokemaniac]

The park allegedly isn't doing well financially at the moment and doesn't see much investment.

We all know how much that is going to change from now on!

Jokes aside, though, I can see the park getting one major ride in the next couple of years. That seems to be how Parques Reunidos sugars the deal with the parks they pillage. They promise investments, "for instance this thing we can buy for you next year", add one ride, and then totally neglect to follow it up. Kennywood got Sky Rocket, TusenFryd got SpinSpider, Mirabilandia got iSpeed (or Divertical, as it's possible that iSpeed was already contracted when Parques Reunidos took over), Movie Park Germany got Van Helsing's Factory, etc. The parks build one big ride a couple of years after the aquisitions, and then never again.

 

[Ben]

^To be fair, as **** as PR are, all those parks got or are currently building something else after those rides you listed... So if you’re trying to use them as examples of parks that ‘never got anything else’ that’s not quite true.

And it’s not like Belantis were chucking in amazing investments anyway.

 

[Pokemaniac]

^To be fair, as :emoji_poop: as PR are, all those parks got or are currently building something else after those rides you listed... So if you’re trying to use them as examples of parks that ‘never got anything else’ that’s not quite true.

And it’s not like Belantis were chucking in amazing investments anyway.

Fair enough. I guess better examples would be BonBon-Land (acquired in 2007, got a kiddie coaster in 2009, nothing since then), Parque Warner Madrid (Identical story to BonBon-Land, coincidentally), or Castle Park (Acquired alongside Kennywood in 2007, got a Spinning Wild Mouse in 2008 and nothing since).
There are also some parks that took years to get any investment, such as Bobbejaanland (bought 2004, got a spinner in 2011) Dutch Wonderland (bought 2010, gets a kiddie this year), Story Land (bought 2008, Roar-o-Saurus 2014), Attractiepark Slagharen (bought 2012, got Gold Rush in 2017), or Lake Compounce (bought 2007, got Phobia in 2016). And then there's Idlewild, which was bought in 2008 and hasn't got anything since. There's really only Parque de Atracciones de Madrid which has got any significant investments, most of which between 1999 and 2009 (plus a Mine Train in 2012) - the end of its generous investments coincides nicely with the time period Parques Reunidos started buying parks.

Hm. With so many examples to pick from, I really should have done a little more research when writing the post above. It looks like those I caught were the exceptions rather than examples. Thanks for the correction!

 

[CSLKennyNI]

The acquisition was approved and Belantis is now owned by PR. Thorsten Backhaus, the manager of Movie Park Germany, is taking over as manager of Belantis. He is also staying as manager of Movie Park (Which MPG fans are very thankful for). Since he has done great things for MPG in recent years since taking over, hopefully this will is be great for Belantis.

https://movieparknews.de/thorsten-backhaus-bleibt-im-movie-park-germany/

 

[CSLKennyNI]

Parques Reunidos acquisition of Belantis also includes 27 ha of land neighbouring the park which had previously been earmarked for expansion. This would almost double the size of the park (currently 30ha).

"Parques Reunidos has a strong track record in both corporate acquisitions and operational improvements in acquired goals. Since 2004, 19 transactions in 10 countries have been successfully completed. This acquisition provides Parques Reunidos with an excellent opportunity to strengthen our presence in the German market and leverage synergies with Filmpark in Bottrop. We have attractive investment projects for Belantis that enhance the customer experience and bring the park to the best industry standards. Our selective acquisition strategy targets companies like Belantis, which offer attractive opportunities, " Parques Reunidos CEO Fernando Eiroa has said.
Belantis has the potential to grow into a flagship park in Germany, with regional coverage for cities such as Prague, Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden.
Source: FreizeitparknewsNRW

 

[CrashCoaster]

They'll probably invest in it once and then never again. And then they'll buy a new park to ruin. I call it "The Curse of Ruinidos". Has a nice ring to it.

 

[Pokemaniac]

"Parques Reunidos has a strong track record in both corporate acquisitions and operational improvements in acquired goals. Since 2004, 19 transactions in 10 countries have been successfully completed. This acquisition provides Parques Reunidos with an excellent opportunity to strengthen our presence in the German market and leverage synergies with Filmpark in Bottrop. We have attractive investment projects for Belantis that enhance the customer experience and bring the park to the best industry standards. Our selective acquisition strategy targets companies like Belantis, which offer attractive opportunities, " Parques Reunidos CEO Fernando Eiroa has said.

This statement tells you everything you need to know about Parques Reunidos. They speak like they're stock brokers or otherwise unidentified asset managers, with no particular regard for the nature of the assets they are acquiring. The first two sentences are nothing but bragging about how much money they are making, the third is about expanding their presence in "the German market" without really caring for what type of market it is. These guys aren't running theme parks, they are buying companies. Theme parks just happens to be the type of companies they've specialized in, it could just as well have been tire valve manufacturers, bakeries, movie theatres, or empty land. Only in the fourth sentence (out of five) do they mention the fact that what they've bought is a park, in a way that makes it look like the word was inserted into a stock sentence after filling in a form. And then there's a little more bragging in the last sentence. "We buy parks that make steady money and has no local competition or other threat to their status quo, because that's the way we can turn huge profits without doing anything".

I mean, there's nothing wrong with wanting to make money. Every park has to do that to survive. But it's provoking to see statements like that. So completely devoid of passion, so overtly keeping focus on their financial strategy. Business first, second, and third. It's so obvious that the company doesn't care in the slightest about which market they're operating in, as long as money keeps coming in. Just look up their website to see more of that philosophy. Where Merlin Entertainment has a big "buy season passes for all our fun parks here!" button, and Universal Parks have pictures of their smiling customers, Parques Reunidos display their current stock rate above a blurb on why their company is such a lucrative investment object. There's no joy in the company whatsoever.

 

[nadroJ]

I was chatting about this on Facebook the other day. It's a tricky one. Part of me get's where you're coming from @Pokemaniac and of course we would all prefer for parks to be operated by companies who are truly passionate about them. On the other hand, the way the financial world is looking right now, it's safe to assume that had a lot of these parks NOT been purchased by PR then there's a good chance they might not even be around anymore. So it's kind of, would I rather have a mediocre park that's still operating but maybe not receiving as much love as it deserves OR have a block of flats where a park once stood? Sad place to be.

 

[Ireeb]

The only point where you can find passion in the company is in their slogan
To me the "make money with as little effort as possible" strategy sounds just stupid. Don't they realize they could make more money with more effort?

 

[Peet]

Where Merlin Entertainment has a big "buy season passes for all our fun parks here!" button, and Universal Parks have pictures of their smiling customers, Parques Reunidos display their current stock rate above a blurb on why their company is such a lucrative investment object. There's no joy in the company whatsoever.

Guys remember Parques Reunidos is not a brand used to promote the theme parks like Merlin or Universal. You can't buy a Parques Reunidos annual pass. Most patrons of their parks will have never heard of the parent company.
This looks like a nice little park, let's hope the investment promised comes to fruition and we get some new coasters over the next few years which the previous owners probably couldn't have afforded.

 

[gavin]

This statement tells you everything you need to know about Parques Reunidos. They speak like they're stock brokers or otherwise unidentified asset managers, with no particular regard for the nature of the assets they are acquiring. The first two sentences are nothing but bragging about how much money they are making, the third is about expanding their presence in "the German market" without really caring for what type of market it is. These guys aren't running theme parks, they are buying companies. Theme parks just happens to be the type of companies they've specialized in, it could just as well have been tire valve manufacturers, bakeries, movie theatres, or empty land. Only in the fourth sentence (out of five) do they mention the fact that what they've bought is a park, in a way that makes it look like the word was inserted into a stock sentence after filling in a form. And then there's a little more bragging in the last sentence. "We buy parks that make steady money and has no local competition or other threat to their status quo, because that's the way we can turn huge profits without doing anything".

I mean, there's nothing wrong with wanting to make money. Every park has to do that to survive. But it's provoking to see statements like that. So completely devoid of passion, so overtly keeping focus on their financial strategy. Business first, second, and third. It's so obvious that the company doesn't care in the slightest about which market they're operating in, as long as money keeps coming in. Just look up their website to see more of that philosophy. Where Merlin Entertainment has a big "buy season passes for all our fun parks here!" button, and Universal Parks have pictures of their smiling customers, Parques Reunidos display their current stock rate above a blurb on why their company is such a lucrative investment object. There's no joy in the company whatsoever.

Brilliant post which captures that announcement exactly. That's all. Carry on.

 

[Pokemaniac]

To me the "make money with as little effort as possible" strategy sounds just stupid. Don't they realize they could make more money with more effort?

"Could" being the key word. They could make more money, or never make back the investment. Parques Reunidos sounds like a really risk averse company. And the spreadsheets probably suggest that spending as little as possible is what would give the greatest return in whatever perspective they're looking at.

And @nadroJ, I'm not sure if I buy the argument that Parques Reunidos saved the parks from bankruptcy. The company is evidently making money off the parks (just see the company website, and the fact that they have money to spend on new acquisitions), and the economical measures they have done mostly amount to cost cutting measures. In the case of TusenFryd, I've heard the park is making record profits, but very little is going back to the park in the form of investments. This year, they are marketing the extended maintenance of ThunderCoaster as one of the year's two big investments, the other being VR for a kiddie coaster. Excess money is being made from the portfolio, following an investment strategy the individual parks could comfortably have followed themselves. I don't know what the most expensive Parques Reunidos ride investment has been, but one of the biggest coasters built in recent years was Gold Rush at Slagharen - at a cost of €5 million, hardly bank breaking for a park with an annual attendance of a million, and which built nothing of that size in the past 15 years. I haven't found exact specs, but I doubt Phobia Phear Coaster or Star Trek: Operation Enterprise were that much different in price.

If anything, some of the parks purchased by Parques Reunidos might have bankrupted themselves through overspending otherwise, but as of now, there is a steady income and a trickle of expenses that suggests a lot of money is being pooled somewhere. Judging by the PR website, it's not going back to the parks any time soon.

 

[Ireeb]

Well, not investing into a park could cause it to lose popularity. It doesn't make sense. If you work with passion and strive for perfection, it's usually hard to fail as a themepark. You just need enough money (I assume that's not the issue) and the right, passionate people (???). A major advantage is also that you can pretty easily conduct surveys and just ask your customers what they want, so you there's not much risk in investing something if a lot of people say it would make them come back. They actually did it with Moviepark Germany, which is nice, and perhaps a sign of improvement. Maybe someday they will realize what they could do with their money. Making more money while making good themeparks. The fact that there were multiple investments into Movie Park is also nice to see, but I wonder if that came from the top of the company (Here's money. Do something.) or the people directly in charge for the park, begging for money to do stuff. As far as I understood, manager of Moviepark will also be in charge for Belantis, maybe he will encourage the company to do something in the park.
I don't really like PR, but haven't lost hope yet.
Also, they remind me a bit of the EA in themeparks.

 

[CSLKennyNI]

Just like the survey that was carried out for Movie Park Germany last year PR are now doing one for the future development of Belantis.
http://web.movieparkgermany.de/cn/a...3_8Q7ZL_0lb37YxrvjkLKAJFHEhLOhYHXNP6BWE6wpa6k
^ funnily enough it is actually hosted on the Movie Park website.

It is not as extensive a survey as the Movie Park one; with the only two major questions being what kind of major attraction would you like to see them add (Family coaster, thrill coaster, interactive dark ride coaster, water ride) and if they were to develop a kids area what sort of rides should it have (kiddie coaster, splash battle, carousel, tea cups, playground),

One thing fans are predicting is a Nickelodeon Land. They did bring in Nickelodeon Characters into the park during the summer (which the enthusiasts weren't keen on as they don't fit the themes or park concept) and since Movie Park Germany's land has been very successful for them, it would be surprising if PR didn't try to further utilise that IP.

If there really is some kind of major investment (other than the presumed kids land) in Belantis anytime soon it'll be interesting to see what they get. Considering both Bobbejaanland and Slagharen have received one I wouldn't be surprised if it is a Gerst Triple/Shuttle Launch.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

I filled it in for a laugh. Surprised myself with how little I needed to use translate.
Put Fluch des Pharao as my favourite ride and said no to the idea of removing anything. It's already got a very large but empty feeling.

 

[Peet]

I just went through the survey, told them to build a roller coaster, obviously.

Anyone know where this is?

It looks great!

 

[Matt N]

I attempted to do it, but for some reason, my Google wouldn't translate the page, so I just kept selecting the option that is one of the very few German words I know; "Nein".

Until "Nein" eventually disappeared as an option and I quit the survey.

 

[Jonne]

@Peet This is in Helsinki (Finland) in an indoor climbing and play park called Hoplop Konala. The attraction is a zipcoaster build by Walltopia. I rode it and it actually is a very fun small ride. Because you're just hanging by a thread you swing a lot in every curve.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

I attempted to do it, but for some reason, my Google wouldn't translate the page

Copy the text into translate in another tab