Market Highlights | Haichang Ocean Park received 6 billion yuan of "blood return", and 14-year-old executives followed the sold theme park to join the new company

On the evening of December 23, Haichang Ocean Park announced that it had completed the sale of theme parks in Wuhan, Chengdu, Tianjin and Qingdao, and would no longer hold any equity interest in these four theme parks in the future. According to the previous transaction announcement, the total price of these four theme parks is 6.08 billion yuan.

For Haichang Ocean Park, the deal can also ease its short-term debt pressure while replenishing cash flow. According to the performance data of Haichang Ocean Park in the first half of 2021, its net current liabilities reached 2.082 billion yuan, and the net debt ratio was 262.1%, both of which showed an upward trend.

Haichang Marine Park has also made it clear that the cash generated from the sale of assets can be used to repay certain debts, reduce the Group's gearing ratio and maintain operations.

Affected by this news, the stock price of Haichang Ocean Park rose by more than 7% after noon on December 24.

However, Haichang Ocean Park's deal with buyer private equity firm MBK Partners was not a one-shot deal, and further cooperation with the latter may be another key factor in the transaction.

According to public information, MBK Partners manages more than $25 billion in assets. Its past investment experience includes consumer and retail, telecommunications and media industries, and the theme park has involved Universal Studios Japan.

According to the previous announcement, in addition to the above four theme parks, the transaction between the two parties also includes 66% of the shares of Zhengzhou Park worth 450 million yuan under the haichang ocean park that are still under construction. In addition, Haichang Ocean Park has also entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with MBK Partners, mainly including the promotion of the "Haichang" brand, the development of intellectual property rights, biotechnology and other cooperation.

After the completion of the transaction of the four theme parks, the new "cooperation" has begun.

It is understood that the four theme parks sold this time are all ocean parks located in the urban area of the city and have been in operation for more than ten years. For MBK Partners, it was safer for a "local" to take over the project.

On December 23, Haichang Ocean Park also issued a resignation announcement, in which Gao Jie, executive director, executive president and chief strategy officer who has served in the company for more than 14 years, resigned from the above positions for personal reasons. The next day, MBK Partners appointed Gao as the CEO of HiHean, an investment platform for the cultural tourism industry, to manage the four theme parks in the acquisition.