This is part of an article from the "In The Black" column in the business section of the Herald Sun..
Another interesting company is Ardent Leisure, which is effectively a combination real estate trust and operator of tourist attractions including Dreamworld, WhiteWater World and SkyPoint.
While property values on the Gold Coast are on the nose and international and domestic tourism has been soft, Ardent has still been growing profits at its theme parks that speak for 43 per cent of pretax earnings.
Any improvement in the economy should quickly turn up on Ardent's bottom line as per capita theme park spending returns to more normal levels.
There is also considerable diversification of earnings including a string of AMF/Kingpin bowling alleys (19 per cent), health clubs (17 per cent), marinas (11 per cent) and some fast growing family entertainment centres in Texas (9 per cent).
Every division grew revenues in the most recent half year and the longer than normal Easter break and some visiting white lions at Dreamworld should keep that trend intact, along with new rides opening for the coming school holidays.
The trends helping Ardent are a rise in the attraction of affordable leisure and the opportunity to increase yields through continual refurbishment and acquisitions.
The only bad news about Ardent is that the share price has already gone for a nice run, up about 50 per cent this year, but I think there is still enough headroom to earn the stock a buy.
This is part of an article from the "In The Black" column in the...
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