Adlabs imagica is a company which operates in a very interesting business of owning and running a theme park. Themes parks are one of most liked things ( however we should always reserve our bias towards liking of certain companies – what you like is not necessarily profitable). The company is a family entertainment destination (unless you are afraid of the rides) and according to me is in the premium space as far as Indian market is concerned.

i had visited the theme park when it was not fully constructed ( along with a group  picnic) and one more recently. Enjoyed thoroughly both the times. If you do have time ( i am very upset for you if you don’t)  visit the park and experience the difference than other parks in India.

The following can be the differences which i noticed during two visits of mine (Since one when the park was not fully completed there was more evolution the second time i visited) –

1. The company has particularly increased its focus on revenue methods other than ticketing. The exit of every major ride is a retail store ( what i particularly liked is that a ride about dinosaur has a store at its exit which would sell dinosaur soft toys along with other things. Since majority of the rides have a story in them i believe such sort of retailing is effective).
2. The company has increased the no of restaurants and there are restaurants which serve different types of foods so you get italian chinese mexican (there were others too but i was more interested in the rides sorry for that but that is something i wish to repeat).
3. There are more announcements in the park relating to activities for its characters ( Tubby’s party, Mr India, Mogambo) something like disney which has a superb recall of its characters Mickey mouse, Mini Mouse, Donald Duck.
4. People carrying tabs for your survey about your experience in the park.  ( One particular question which i was thinking was asked in the survey was Which visit of yours is this to Imagica. This leads us to How many repeat customers would imagica getting – It should not be like a one time watch bollywood movie)
5. Photos, Contests and there was also a imagica shuttle which moves you inside the park if you need. (Don’t blame if it feels like a long drive as imagica is huge for good. The fun is in walking and experiencing.

i definitely know i have missed many but maybe this was that i could have managed in the roller coaster excitement.

Coming to the basic story of Imagica –

Imagica as a project consisits of

1. Theme Park ( Imagica Theme Park)
2. Water Park ( Aqua imagica)
3. Snow Park (Snowimagica)
4. Hotel (Novetel Imagica)
5. Adventure Park ( not yet launched – pretty excited for this both as a visitor and a shareholder which should typically not be different).

There are also other things planned which we may not discuss now.

Coming to the financials the revenue growth has been good for imagica along with the foothalls ( it is the no of people visiting the park) and ARPU ( ARPU is Average Revenue Per User which is simply how much imagica earns as revenue from one person. It is further broken up into Theme Park ARPU, Water Park ARPU, Hotel ARPU or ARR).

This is the basic you can further refer to the investor presentation which is attached at the end.

Q1 and Q3 are the main season quarters for imagica and maybe all other parks. Q2 (due to rains) and Q3 (due to school and college exams) are lean seasons.

The reason for fall in foothalls from FY 17 onwards (over same quarter in FY 16) is that the company has discontinued all the lower ARPU (discounted) products like Happy Tuesday and What A Wednesday and has increased average ticket prices across all categories. This is to position the park as a premium multi day holiday destination. This according to me is the appropriate strategy as Imagica was earlier conceptualized as a premium park. The quality and the type of rides are simply higher than any park in India.

Imagica is still not profitable. Globally parks have a break even period of generally 3-5 years. Imagica is into its third year of operations. The problem which the company is facing to achieve profitability is the debt problem. Imagica has debt of about 900-1000 crores which gives a high interest liability to the company. Further the company has surplus land of about 160 acres out of which it has received approval for a township on 88 acres. Now imagica is not building the township by itself it is supplying land to any interested developer ( an appropriate move considering the current financial position of the company). It has signed a letter of intent with Rustomjee and Axis Spaces for developing the same. The payments from this arrangement would help it reduce its debt.

Imagica had came out at an ipo at a price of around 180 and currently you would be getting it at far lesser price. If you are thinking of buying this than please don’t buy at one go and buy as the situation unfolds. i do believe there is a market for imagica.

Further i am attaching here the latest investor presentation and annual report for you to look if you need.

i also plan to write a post on comparision of imagica with another listed amusement park operator Wonderla Holidays. i have noot visited any Wonderla park (they are in Bangalore, Kochi and Hyderabad). Just saw the videos on youtube. If you just want to check the quality of theme parks in India and globally just see youtube videos of rides of Six Flags and Cedar Point which are both USA based theme park operators. Hence there is still a lot of development to be made in theme parks in India but currently Imagica at least tries to match it.

Imagica Investor Presentation Q2 16-17

Annual Report 2015-16

i highly recommend you go through the Annual Report and investor presentation if you have time.

Disclosure – Invested at lower levels and my views maybe biased. This is not a stock recommendation and request you to do your own due diligence (It would be interesting if you would be able to share that due diligence as it would help us all learn).