Hong Kong Disneyland Cuts Losses, Repays Loan to Disney

In a financial statement published nearly nine months in arrears, the Hong Kong Disneyland theme park revealed that its revenues in the year to September 2023 had more than doubled and that its losses had been slashed.

The park, which is a joint venture between the Hong Kong government and the Walt Disney Company, with the government owning a majority stake, saw revenue between October 2022 and September 2023 climb by 156% to HK$5.7 billion ($731 million) as total attendance grew by 87% to 6.4 million.

Earnings before interest, taxation and depreciation (EBITDA) tripled to HK$924 million ($118 million) and net losses tumbled by 83% to HK356 million ($45.6 million).

Operators said that the park has been profitable since summer 2023 and that after the end of the financial year the park has continued to perform well. It said that the January-March 2024 quarter has delivered record revenue, EBITDA and net earnings, but did not quantify the statement.

The improvement in EBITDA means that Disney will be able to charge a management fee, local media reported. The base management fee is set at 6.5% of EBITDA with a variable management fee of zero to 8%

Park operators said that Hong Kong Disneyland had also fully paid back the revolver credit facility funded by a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company in Dec. 2023 and has not drawn on it thereafter.

We are back and have turned the corner financially, said park MD Michael Moriarty on Tuesday. He described a challenging journey through the COVID-19 pandemic, as Hong Kong adopted some of the world s most stringent anti-disease controls, largely closed its borders and remained somewhat restricted for longer than most other territories. That process damaged the city s tourist resources and mean that its leading airline is unlikely to fully recover until the first quarter of 2025.

Soon after Hong Kong reactivated inbound tourism, our business and inbound tourism strategies paid off, the park said in a statement. World of Frozen accelerated our growth momentum in 2024.

The park added infrastructure in each of the past five years. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle! in 2019; the reimagined Castle of Magical Dreams in 2020; castle daytime show Follow Your Dreams in 2021; Momentous Nighttime Spectacular in 2022; and World of Frozen in 2023.

Non-local attendance rebounded after the lifting of travel restrictions and outpaced the recovery of the Hong Kong local market. Mainland China visitors had exceeded its 2017-18 financial year levels by the end of the reporting period. Arrivals from Southeast Asia markets also grew. Cumulative attendance by end of September 2023 surpassed 98 million.