SeaWorld Entertainment, in a good-news announcement delivered well ahead of its formal earnings report, said Monday that revenue and attendance at its theme parks soared 10 percent over the last nine months.
Across the 12 parks, 1.4 million more guests passed through turnstiles, while revenue grew by $90 million, the company reported.
Similarly strong growth was reported for the third quarter, which represents much of the crucial summer season.
The announcement comes on the heels of news more than a week ago that the Orlando, Fla-based company and a former CEO, James Atchison, will pay more than $5 million to settle federal fraud charges that they misled investors about the impact the 2013 anti-captivity documentary "Blackfish" had on company performance.
SeaWorld, which cautioned that the latest results have not yet been audited, said it was releasing the preliminary numbers in connection with a "potential debt refinancing." It has yet to set a date for its third-quarter earnings release.
The company rarely discloses preliminary results ahead of the regularly scheduled earnings reports. The last time it did so was in February of 2017 when it was also contemplating a refinancing.
The latest results are consistent with a recent rebound SeaWorld has been experiencing in attendance following a years-long slump. The stock also has experienced an impressive resurgence, up nearly 117 percent so far this year.
Over the last three months ending Sept. 30, attendance jumped 10 percent, SeaWorld reported, with 700,000 more guests visiting the parks. That follows similarly positive results in the second quarter, which captures the start of the summer season. For the three months ending June 30, attendance grew by 290,000, or 5 percent, compared with the same period a year earlier.
SeaWorld is currently led by interim CEO John Reilly, a former SeaWorld San Diego park president. He stepped in earlier this year following the sudden resignation of former chief executive Joel Manby. Among the key moves Manby made before his departure were a phaseout of the theatrical Shamu shows and a ban on future breeding of the parks' population of killer whales.
