Merlin Entertainment’s (LON:MERL) 2015 results reflected the effects of the accident at Alton Towers in June that left five people seriously injured and shut the Smiler rollercoaster.
Theme parks revenues fell by 12% due to the slump in visitors to the park following the accident, though this was offset by growth of 8% at Legoland parks and 2% in what it calls it Midway operations such as the London Eye and Madame Tussaud’s.
Revenues overall rose by 2.3% to £1.28bn, while operating profits fell 6% to £291mln. Pre-tax profits were flat at £250mln.
Nick Varney, chief executive, said it had been a challenging year due to the Alton Towers incident, where it had sought to learn every possible lesson to avoid a repeat.
Varney also unveiled a major expansion programme comprising 2,000 new rooms, forty new Midway Attractions and four new Legoland parks by 2020.
The group has also taken a 15% stake in the one of the operators of open top bus tours in London and a host of other cities.
Merlin has splashed out US$34.4mln for the stake in Big Bus Tours.
The company operates hop on, hop off tours in 17 cities including Dubai, Hong Kong, New York, Paris, Philadelphia and Rome and others as well as London.
Varney said there were significant revenue synergies with its own city centre attractions with a clear overlap in 8 cities, including London, Hong Kong and San Francisco.
“This investment will facilitate a closer working relationship on the ground while enabling us to learn about a highly complementary business."
Shares rose 5% to 455p.