Six Flags to Invest RM1.5bil Malaysia Theme Park?

 

US Six Flags to invest RM1.5bil in Iskandar theme park after legoland

 

NUSAJAYA: US-based theme park operator Six Flags Entertainment Corp is planning to invest between RM1.2bil and RM1.5bil to set up a theme park in Iskandar Malaysia.

 

Sources told StarBiz that the theme park, which will be double the size of Legoland Malaysia and the company's first theme park in Asia, would offer more than 40 rides.

 

According to Wikipedia, Six Flags Entertainment is the world's largest amusement park corporation based on quantity of properties and the fifth most popular in terms of attendance.

 

The company maintains 19 properties throughout North America consisting of theme parks, thrills parks, water theme parks and family entertainment centres.

 

Iskandar Invesment Bhd (IIB) president and chief executive officer Datuk Syed Mohamed Syed Ibrahim, who spoke about Iskander Malaysia getting a theme park, which will be third in Iskandar Malaysia, said an announcement would be made by an investor within the next six months on the matter.

 

The other two theme parks are Legoland Malaysia and Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park.

 

“The new theme park caters to young adults unlike the existing two parks which are for children,'' he told reporters yesterday after the ground-breaking ceremony of the RM250mil Raffles American School campus on an 18.21ha site at EduCity, offering pre-kindergarten to 12th grade education.

 

He declined to give more details when asked on the new theme park and its attractions, including whether it would be a water-theme park.

 

Syed Mohamed said the opening of Legoland Malaysia and Puteri Harbour Theme Park last year had created a new level of confidence among domestic and foreign investors that Iskandar Malaysia was moving in the right direction.

 

“Different theme parks cater to different segments of visitors and this will be better than just having one park in our development,'' he added.

 

The US$200mil Legoland Malaysia on a 23ha site, which is a joint venture between Merlin Entertainment Groups and IIB, is the first Legoland park in Asia.

 

Other Legoland theme parks across the world are situated in Denmark, the UK, Germany and in Florida and California.

Well, that's a surprise. With an investment of nearly $500,000,000USD, and 40 rides, this will be a really impressive park. Is the park being built by a company that will pay Six Flags for the name and IP?

Do Legoland's guests, and the future Six Flags, mainly come from Malaysia, Singapore, or other nations in the region? The park(s) are by Johor Bahru, but, despite being a sizable city, it seems like the market is now getting a little over saturated, even with Singapore right next door. Also, is there easy access to other cities in the region like Kuala Lumpur?

Well, that's a surprise. With an investment of nearly $500,000,000USD, and 40 rides, this will be a really impressive park. Is the park being built by a company that will pay Six Flags for the name and IP?

 

Do Legoland's guests, and the future Six Flags, mainly come from Malaysia, Singapore, or other nations in the region? The park(s) are by Johor Bahru, but, despite being a sizable city, it seems like the market is now getting a little over saturated, even with Singapore right next door. Also, is there easy access to other cities in the region like Kuala Lumpur?

If the current visitors to Legoland are from the Iskandar region, I would not be concerned about oversaturation as no other park serves the teen/thrill seeker market in the Iskandar region. As the current Legoland visitors grow up they will be prime customers for the larger rides that Legoland won't provide.

Excuse my ignorance, but is it easy to cross the Malyasia/Singapore border for locals. I know Universal is in Singapore but can Malaysians easily get there.

Six Flags once again expanding into the global market? Hopefully, Six Flags decides to wait for a couple of years to gain anymore parks if they decide to once again expand into more international waters.

Do Legoland's guests, and the future Six Flags, mainly come from Malaysia, Singapore, or other nations in the region? The park(s) are by Johor Bahru, but, despite being a sizable city, it seems like the market is now getting a little over saturated, even with Singapore right next door.

Singapore gets lots of visitors from the region as it's the major airport hub in southeast Asia, and it's fairly common for tourists flying to Europe (and vice versa) to have a day or two stopover in Singapore. On top of this there is a fairly sizeable population in the immediate area to begin with (around 6-7 million) so should be plenty of customers for all parks.

Anyway I'm excited for this. Soon it will be only 8 hours flight to my nearest Six Flags, instead of 14!

This Six Flags thing seems really odd. Are there any other stories or sources on it?

And they're pretty much building these parks right across the border from Singapore because it's much cheaper and there's tons more available land. I imagine they're trying very hard to pull in residents and visitors to Singapore rather than locals.

Larry, crossing the border is very similar to the border crossing in Buffalo, NY over to Canada.

Several sources are now appearing to back up the news on the Six Flags park:

Here

Here

or Here

My comment on market over saturation was due to there being Universal Studios, Legoland, the other park mentioned, and now Six Flags. I just assumed people would go to Universal for thrills and that the Asian park market operated differently from that in the US. I guess I'm just surprised another park is being built in the area when Southeast Asia is an open market. I would have guessed seeing a new major park open in Jakarta or Manilla before another one in Johor.

Now, by "thrill park", should be expect Six Flags Magic Mountain or Six Flags Great America?

^Let's hope for SFGAm!

Anyone wanna place bets on whether or not SF Malaysia opens before SF Dubai and SF Kenya break ground?

^LOL! I had forgotten about that Six Flags Africa article!!!!

As said earlier, there is 7 millions people living in the area, and there's another 8 million living 3 hours away in the country's capital. Plus Malaysia & Singapore gets a lot of tourism from China, Japan and even Australia. Not to mention all the backpacking people in the area. This park can be a huge success for Six Flags, if done right.

I love Malaysia. it's defiantly the most evolved and western style (except for Thailand) country in the region.

^Don't you think neighboring Singapore is a lot more evolved and western!?!?

General outline sounds good.

I'm generally not an southern Asia kind of guy: Too hot and humid for me. Guess why I only take Florida Nov-Feb...

^Don't you think neighboring Singapore is a lot more evolved and western!?!?

Yes I do, I should have written it, but I thought it was obvious.

I'm a little skeptical on this. Why would Six Flags put up all the money. Disney doesn't own 100% of their overseas parks. There has to be another investor and the other investor is going to be the one that will make this happen if at all. I kind of see these announcements as testing the waters to see how much interest there is.

This news is very interesting to me but can anyone provide me with more clarification.

The 500 mil USD investment will be over a certain amount of years or is this all upfront?

Is six flags going to own and be the operator of the park?

In Dubai, was the deal for Six flags to kind of lease its name to the development but not be the actual operator?

Is this an actual done deal? Or is this just an announcement similar the paramount park in Murica that didn't have all its financing together and hasn't come to fruition yet?

Is this an actual done deal? Or is this just an announcement similar the paramount park in Murica that didn't have all its financing together and hasn't come to fruition yet?

Six Flags has not issued a press release. When it comes to public companies nothing this big should be considered a done deal without a press release.

Six Flags denies that they are planning to build a park in Malaysia.

Grand Prairie-based theme park operator Six Flags Entertainment has been getting lots of publicity this morning following an online report that it plans to invest heavily in a new theme park in Malaysia.

 

That would be a surprising move for a company that currently only has operations in North America. Turns out the news surprised executives at Six Flags also.

 

“It is not true,” said Six Flags spokeswoman Nancy Krejsa adding that the company is seeking a retraction.

 

An article on straitstimes.com, a site that carries news on Southeast Asia, quotes an official with Iskandar Investment as saying an announcement would be made “by an investor within the next six months on the matter.”

 

The item was picked up as legit by some Web sites including attractionsmanagement.com.

Link

^Ha! That's what I thought and why I questioned this from the first post.

^^Even still, the real question is...

will grounds will break on this project before Flying Turns opens?

^Probably not, though they might break ground by the time the first footer on Full Throttle is poured.

Elissa called it.

I for one would actually like to see this happen.

After they lost Walibi in Europe, I would actually like to see the company reach new areas of the planet by moving continents again.

Now that I think about it, the same goes for Cedar Fair as well.

This is still way confusing. I know Six Flags is rolling in the profits the past couple years, but them investing this much into a new Asian park did seem a bit odd, considering how bad the European parks did. Having just the Six Flags name on a park would be a big thing though as it seems everyone around the world knows what Six Flags is. I still have a few friends over in Europe that still call the Walibi parks, "Six Flags."

I know Cedar Fair is in no hurry to build a brand new amusement park. Ouimet has stated that a couple times and with the stack of debt still from the Paramount parks looming over their head, don't expect them to build anything new outside of the current 11 parks. Plus, they already have a park outside of the US: Canada's Wonderland.

^I would bet that name recognition of the Six Flags brand is close to ZERO in Malaysia. Having it branded/owned by Six Flags will not add much to consumer perception.