Update: SIX Flagging
Another bad week for Dan Snyder's theme park chain. Six Flags announced that it will not be building a Dark Knight roller coaster at its New England outpost after all.
Six Flags started construction on the $7.5 million coaster this winter without bothering to get zoning and construction permits from the town of Agawam, Mass., where the park is located.
Agawam officials in February ordered Six Flags to stop work on the project until they got the permits.
And, yesterday, after months of debate during which it turned out that there were safety and other issues with the unapproved plans, Six Flags decided to scrap the coaster project, and will instead be tearing down everything built thus far.
In place of Dark Knight, Six Flags disclosed yesterday, the New England park will debut something called "Glow in the Park," an attraction described by the company as "a phenomenal nighttime extravaganza that will blow our guests away."
Wall Street, alas, wasn't blown away by "Glow in the Park": Six Flags stock (SIX) closed at $1.56 a share yesterday, which, if I'm reading the charts correctly, is its lowest closing price in history. Investors might also be fleeing SIX because of other recent headlines regarding the threat of bankruptcy, the three class action suits related to 500 cases of Norovirus traced to Six Flags' upstate New York park, or testimony in the lawsuit from that sordid case of a kid getting her feet chopped off last summer on the Superman Tower of Power ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.
In any case, the same stock sold for $11.80 in the spring of 2006, as Snyder took over the board of directors and put his management team and marketing strategy in place.
In SEC filings, Snyder’s Red Zone LLC, an investment group which includes several top Redskins officials, claimed ownership of 10.9 million shares of Six Flags stock. Assuming they've still got them, as of the close of yesterday's markets the Ashburn office pool had lost $111,616,000.
Again: They've lost $111.616.000.
Keep the dial right here for all the breaking news in Snyder’s Six Flags soap opera.
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12:16 pm
The all-time low for Six was $1.46 reached on January 22, 2008.
Red Zone, LLC no longer exists, reportedly because some of the shareholders wanted control of their shares. Snyder isn't the largest shareholder, Bill Gates personal investment firm Cascade Investment, LLC has the most shares now.
Six Flags is burdened by so many negative issues including the lawsuits you mentioned.
2:40 pm
SnyderSucks:
While $1.46 is the low for SIX, as has been written in City Desk several times, that was a mid-day price, and SIX closed on Jan. 22 at $1.63 a share. So, I'm still pretty sure that yesterday's mark is a record low for a closing price -- though from the looks of things it'll only hold the mark until the end of today's trading.
I've also written about the distribution of shares within Red Zone a few months back, which is why I said "assuming they've still got them." I have looked for, but not found, any disclosures that the biggies in Red Zone got rid of their SIX stock after the dispersal.
Do you know differently?
3:04 pm
Yesterday almost ended at $1.53, if not for a 23k $1.56 share block right at the end. Will have to see how today ends.
From the latest Insider Transactions, they haven't sold off their shares. Schar increased his holdings by 1,112,000 shares between $1.96 and $2.
With so much market cap lost, most shareholders are holding onto the stock as evidenced by the low trading volume.
8:33 pm
It seems very easy to pull out every bit of bad news. Is there a point to this blog if its just a Snyder hating rant?
9:03 pm
Nameless:
pulling out "every bit of bad news" about Six Flags sounds like a great idea for a blog! but, geez, that would take a much larger staff. i mean, have you looked into the company lately? it's all chopped off feet and diarrhea, Nameless!
you do the Six Flags Good News blog, Nameless. You could do it in your sleep. Really...
But thanks for playing the feud!