By Chester Yung
HONG KONG--Hong Kong's Disney theme park Monday posted a 36%
growth for its net profit in last fiscal year lifted by a record
high attendance, marking its third profitable year since opening in
2005.
Hong Kong Disneyland, which is 52%-owned by the city's
government, while Walt Disney Co. (DIS) owns the rest, reported a
record net profit of HK$332 million (US$42.8 million) for the
fiscal year ended September of 2014, up from HK$244 million a year
earlier. Attendance hit a record of 7.5 million people for fiscal
2014, compared with 7.4 million a year earlier.
Hong Kong Disneyland reported its first-ever annual profit in
fiscal 2012. It had been unprofitable previously, partly because
early attendance was lower than expected. Critics have cited its
size and a lack of attractions that appeal to Chinese visitors.
Hong Kong Disneyland remains the smallest of all Disney theme parks
world-wide.
To boost attendance, the park was expanded from 2009 to add
major attractions. Last month, it started to build its third luxury
hotel with 750 rooms that is scheduled to open by early 2017.
Walt Disney announced in 2013 that it planned to build an Iron
Man attraction--which is expected to open in 2016-- at its Hong
Kong theme park. This could help Hong Kong Disneyland better
compete against the company's forthcoming Shanghai park. Walt
Disney's US$5.5 billion theme park in Shanghai, previously set to
open by the end of this year, will instead open in the first half
of 2016, people close to the project told The Wall Street Journal
earlier this month.
Write to Chester Yung at chester.yung@wsj.com
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