Just went public, WHISTLER BC SOLD!

CDdesign

CDdesign

Active member
Whistler BC has been sold by Intrawest to help eliminate debt.

Holy shit, Intrawest's biggest resort is gone!
 
"Intrawest, that owns the resort, retains a 34% stake."

they still have a good chunk. still huge though
 
i got a company email (Intrawest) today from Bill Jenson, CEO of Intrawest. will link it tomorrow at work

so far $435 million dollars of debt has been eliminated, Intrawest still hold 35% of shares, but plans to sell it off to further eliminate debt

could mean good things for both parties!
 
Nov 2 (Reuters) - Canadian ski resort operator Whistler Blackcomb Holdings, which hosted some 2010 Winter Olympics events, priced its initial public offering at C$12 per share, below what it had previously planned.Whistler Blackcomb, a two-mountain ski resort in British Columbia, raised C$300 million. The proceeds will be used to buy a 75 percent stake in the companies that own the resort from Intrawest ULC, a company owned by funds managed by a unit of private equity fund Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG.N) .Whistler Blackcomb was formed to complete the IPO.Originally, the resort operator had planned to sell shares at between C$14 and C$15 with a yield of 6.5 percent to 7 percent. But last week, a source told Reuters that Whistler Blackcomb scaled back the pricing, and would try to sell shares for between $12.50 and $13, with an indicated yield of 7.5 percent to 7.8 percent. [ID:nN28268899]The closing of the IPO is set for Nov. 9, and the company's shares are expected to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "WB."Fortress will still own about 34 percent of Whistler Blackcomb's shares after the IPO, Fortress said in a statement.The IPO's underwriters have the option for 30 days to purchase another 3.75 million shares. The company would not get any proceeds from the sale of those shares.
--------------------------------------------Yes, so Whistler has gone public.
 
So what does this mean exactly? They've gone public? Will this change any thing at the resort?
 
what this COULD...COULD mean, is that with eliminated debt from intrawest, all the other resorts see more money... and get better

also for Whistler, a new board of directors and new owners, hopefully means NEW POCKETS full of money
 
Intrawest's intent to spin off Whistler in an IPO has been known for quite some time now. Today was merely the date of the IPO. Senior management will not change, but the BOD will now be determined mostly by the share holders. The resort will continue to have autonomous decision making. There will be little to no difference in the way the resort is run. Expect absolutely no change in things what so ever. Intrawest is still the highest stake-holder.

The IPO is garbage, it offers absolutely no upward growth. Whistler is a mature asset. Only growth prospects are from potential international exposure from the Olympics. Due to the mature nature of the mountain, a relatively large dividend based on operational income is likely.
 
Fortress owns all of Intrawest they bought all there assets back in 2006 for 2.1 billion dollars with 1.7 billion dollars of debt.

Fortress could not make the final 1.4 billion dollar payment on there loan and could have gone bankrupt. This was when the olympics were on.

They sold off resorts they owned like a golf resort in florida and Panorama as a few of the examples in order to to pay the creditors. They tried to sell Whistler privately but nobody wanted it.

Now with the economy tanked and the resorts worth a lot less then before they have screwed themselfs over. The I.P.O only raised 300 million dollars that is going to pay debt off.
 
Oh, I missed that part about the yield. Yeah, like I said, relatively large dividend based on operational income.
 
The IPO is just to raise money to pay off all that debt. The only reason why people are investing is the high yield they offer. It is a risky investment being such a weather based operation, if this winter is awful the price is going to drop like a rock.
 
For the edge card I bought a few weeks ago I just got an email saying that the because in the change in ownership I had to sign a liability form.
Why would this have changed so quickly with new ownership? Or is it because the liability is somehow nontransferable?
 
I don't actually think Whistler's income are incredibly weather reliant. I was reading revenues over the past 6 years and they were more or less stable adjusting for the market dip recession. A better correlation would be the market as a whole. People don't travel from Texas to ski whistler when they're broke as fuck and ain't makin mortgage payments.
 
Thinking it's the later.

Since they're under new management they may have needed to redraft legal documents. Instead of using intrawest's default form they had to make their own.

That's my guess anyways.

I'm really hoping the seasons pass I picked up a few weeks ago will still function. It says intrawest on the back in huge letters..
 
They showed interest when Fortress was trying to do a private sale, but it never happened. WB stock is up +0.04 today!
 
If the price drops and cash flow remains, the yield could become attractive. But I agree, chance of long-term capital appreciation is low due to lack of opportunity for profitable expansion. No reason to consider this over resource sectors for example which have obvious growth potential.
 
should have tapped the bond market. refi is so cheap right now, unless they were fearful of the rating S&P, Moodys etc... would give them (probable)
 
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