Six Flags to Sell Seven Parks

Six Flags(SIX Quote) agreed to sell seven of its amusement parks for $312 million as part of an ongoing effort to reduce debt and increase financial flexibility.

The three water parks and four theme parks will be sold to PARC 7F-Operations of Jacksonville, Fla. The parks are Six Flags Darien Lake in Buffalo, N.Y.; Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver; Frontier City and the White Water Bay water park in Oklahoma City; SplashTown in Houston; Waterworld USA in Concord, Calif.; and Wild Waves and Enchanted Village in Seattle.

Six Flags will receive $275 million in cash and a note receivable for $37 million. The sale, along with last year's sale of Houston AstroWorld, will result in gross cash proceeds of $352 million toward the park operator's plan to reduce debt by several hundred million dollars in coming years.

Six Flags has been struggling under a heavy debt load and said last year that was planning asset sales to shift its resources to its most successful parks. The moves came after a lengthy proxy fight launched by Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder led to a management overhaul in late 2005.

"My new management team had several key priorities for Six Flags in 2006: transitioning our brand to attract families; cleaning up the parks; reducing capital expenditures; establishing a Corporate Alliances department to forge sponsorship and marketing partnerships with major consumer brands; increasing guest spending; and selling assets as a means to reduce the company's debt," said Mark Shapiro, Snyder's hand-picked CEO. "With this announcement, all those steps are in full swing and we now have our agenda focused squarely on the 2007 season."