Following the €1b ($1.2b) restructuring of debt and multi-million euro net loss for 2014 of Euro Disney, fund manager Invesco has sold its 6 percent stake in the company ahead of a €420m ($527m) rights issue by Disney which will be open to all investors.
A statement from the Financial Markets Authority, France’s stock exchange regulator, said that Ivesco’s shares had fallen “below the threshold of 5 percent of the capital and voting rights of Euro Disney and it no longer holds any shares in this company.”
Walt Disney owns 39.8 percent of the park’s shares, with a further 10 percent in the hands of Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed. The third-largest investor was Invesco, which had more than doubled its stake over the past two years.
Despite having assets worth €2.2b and being Europe’s most visited tourist attraction, Euro Disney has a market capitalization of just €48.3m. The park’s shares have lost nearly a third of their value since 2012, with shares recently hitting a near all-time low of €1.24.
Euro Disney’s next major boost is expected to come in 2016, when it will open a new leisure complex, Villages Nature – a sustainable vacation destination concept in partnership with holiday apartment rental company Pierre et Vacances.
