Disney doubling down on its 10-year spending plan for parks
The Walt Disney Company is developing plans to accelerate and nearly double its capital expenditures in the Disney Parks, Experience and Products dvision to spend $60 billion during the next 10 years compared to what it has done during the past 10 years, the company said in an SEC filing today.
“The Company is developing plans to accelerate and expand investment in its DPEP segment, to nearly double, as compared to the previous approximately 10-year period, consolidated capital expenditures for the segment over the course of an approximately 10-year period to approximately $60 billion in aggregate, including by investing in expanding and enhancing domestic and international parks and cruise line capacity, prioritizing projects anticipated to generate strong returns, consistent with the Company’s continuing approach to allocate capital in a disciplined and balanced manner,” the filing stated.
“We believe that the Company’s financial condition is strong and that its cash balances, other liquid assets, operating cash flows, access to capital markets and borrowing capacity under current bank facilities, taken together, provide adequate resources to fund ongoing operating requirements, contractual obligations, upcoming debt maturities as well as future capital expenditures related to the expansion of existing businesses and development of new projects,” according to the filing.
The Parks division has been a steady financial backbone for the Walt Disney Company over the years, and many fans and some analysts have said that the division us being sucked dry to keep the company profitable.
Today, Senior Disney executives, including Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger and Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro, are gathered with Wall Street analysts and investors at the Walt Disney World Resort for an investor summit focused on Disney’s Parks business.
Disney continuously reimagines its theme park offerings to appeal to more guests by incorporating new stories from its popular films and series. Disney Parks has seen growth following previous periods of significant investment, which included the additions of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure, Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Resort and Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, and more, according to a company press release.
According to Disney, in addition to reimagining areas of the various parks, “there is room for for further expansion on land and at sea. In fact, Disney Parks has over 1,000 acres of land for possible future development to expand theme park space across its existing sites – the equivalent of about seven new Disneyland Parks.”
While no more specific details have been announced, Disney has recently talked about “Blue Sky” ideas for Walt Disney World, including reimagining DinoLand at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and expanding an area behind Big Thunder Mountain at Magic Kingdom.
There might be more news released during the Investory Day, keep checking back,
