After closing what Serge Naim, Vice President Finance, called the fiscal "transitional year" 2001 the company is concentrating on the opening of the second gate for the fiscal year 2002 to increase revenues and margins, while expecting a decline of the real estate development as revenue catalyst compared to the last fiscal year, even so the International Business Park Val d'Europe, developed together with Arlington Secuirties Plc., will continue its growth with the goal of covering 40 hectares at the end of phase one in 2008 and future plans of epxansion till 2020 to cover 146 hectares.

Euro Disney SCA has announced the date for the upcoming General Shareholders' Meeting - it will take place on the 19th of February 2002. Invitations will be sent to all members of the Shareholders' Club in time.

Euro Disney SCA, the operating company of the Disneyland Resort Paris, announced its results for the business year 2001 today. The terrorist attacks in New York City did not affect the resort according to its chairman Jay Rasulo, who reported that no increase in cancelations could be detected and the reservations for the coming months are as strong as expected, with only the convention business undergoing a slow down. But then the conventions only contribute 8 to 9 percent to the nights spend in the Disney Hotels. At the same time the important number of guests visiting the theme park during the Halloween Festival, the first big event in the resort after the attacks in the US, even increased. With the construction of the second theme park under way and the reinstating of the full royalty-payments to the Walt Disney Company an drop of full year net- profit had been expected but its size of 21.2 percent came as an surprise to experts. In hard numbers this means a profit of 30.5 instead of last years 38.7 million Euro. But long term prospects according to Euro Disney SCA are bright - with the opening of the second an increase of guests to 16 to 17 millions is expected and in the first full year of the WDS' operation the operational margin of Euro Disney should raise 3 to 5 percent from the current 18.4 percent for the last business year. The operating profit already rose this year 5.3 percent to 185.2 million Euro, as did the turnover by 4.8 percent to 1.005 billion Euro. More increases were noted for the number of guests which rose to 12.2 million from last years 12 million and the per capita spending of guests which rose to 43.1 from 42.2 Euro. Still first comments from experts stressed that this numbers did not meet their expectations even so the forthcoming opening of the second gate before the originally planed date of the 12th fo April 2002 certainly is positive news.

Tightened security measures like searching bags as well as the un-pleasant feeling most of us have after the events of September 11 seems not to have kept people staying away from Disneyland Paris: according to a report by Bloomberg.com, attendance at the theme park has not declined after the terroristic attacks on the United States. Euro Disney CEO Jay Rasulo was being quoted that they had not seen any impact on DLP's attendance levels yet. Only a few business conventions had been delayed.
It's interesting to note that while the Disney theme parks at the United States didn't have that few visitors ever since the Gulf War in 1991 and the Walt Disney Company's stock is currently at its lowest point in six years, Euro Disney's stock has even gained 12% in comparsion to September 10, one day before the events in New York City and Washington.
But it remains to be seen how those attacks will effect the touristic industry in general and Disneyland Paris Resort in particular...

Euro Disney S.C.A. has reported a 4,3% rise in turnover during the first nine months of financial year 2001 ending June 30. Boosted by modest increases in theme park attendance, hotel occupany and per room guest spending, sales climbed from 657,7 million Euro during the same period a year ago to 685,9 million Euro. Euro Disney also noted that its real estate development activities at Val d'Europe have created an additional turnover of 20 million Euro.

The construction of the second themepark, the Walt Disney Studios slated to open on the 12th of April 2002, is well known in the buisness world for months and the release of the very positive results of the first half of the current business year 2000/2001 is already a month old - so what's happening here? On Tuesday the 5th of June the shares of EuroDisney SCA rose to a new year-high at peaking at 1.16 Euro in Paris before easing again but always keeping above the symbolic 1 Euro line, it had surpassed the last time more than 18 months ago!
The increase was due to heavy traffic boosting the share price 12% at some time. What makes this even more interesting: after a trading volume of around six million shares on Friday (the market of Paris on Monday) it rose to around 8 million shares alone in the morning(!) of Tuesday - even so some analysts have labeled the shares of EuroDisney SCA as a "buy recommendation", some according to Reuters with a target of 1.2 Euro, the rise was unexpected and seems, according to insiders who don't want to be named, it is propable that a single bug buyer maybe a fund group bought most of the shares yesterday and it was even rumored that it could be a US buyer... but who - that stays a mistery...
Even so Reuters cites an analyst saying "We are one year away from the opening of the second park and when it opens that will be the biggest news in the company's history -- investors will get a big uplift if it goes right" it is alyso repeated that the stock is still regarded as a risky bet even so analysts expect that the troubles have been finally put behind the company. But this didn't stop the european markets from continuing the upward trend as the stock price is still rising across the markets who are tracing the success of the shares yesterday at the market of Paris. So the shares are gaiming strongly for 1.2 Euro having gained up to 10.48% (in Berlin) in the first hours of trade to reach up to 1.19 Euro (in Frankfurt). As the trade volumes are quiet small on these markets it seems that the supposed big single buyer from yesterday isn't involved here - but the question remains: who was this buyer and why did he go for the EuroDisney shares yesterday?

The shares of EuroDisney SCA rose to a new year-high on Wednesday after EuroDisney SCA had announced the results for the first half of the financial year 2001 covering the period October to March, even so financial analysts still rated the shares as "underperformer", with BNP Paribas analyst Nigel Reed setting a sharer pice target of 0.80 euro till the "revenue situation" becomes clear as analysts daubt the expected increase of guests with the opening of the WDS and instead fear that many visitors just switch from the Disneyland Park to the new studios themepark.
The loss was reduced to 24.2 million Euro for the first 6 months, 22.7 percent less than the 31.3 million Euro the company lost last year in the same period which is always the weakest time of the year. Thereby EuroDisney met the expectations, as last years results also included the losses resulting from a heavy storm that hit the resort just days before the millennium celebration which anyway was able to generate exceptional revenues. General revenues rose to 420 million Euro (up 4.2 percent), while the revenues generated by (and in) the Disneyland Park rose even higher, 4.6 percent, to 185.2 million Euro. But the most impressive figur is the increase of the operational margin (that is the income before lease and financial charges), which was increased by 35 percent or 12.8 million Euro to 48.5 million Euro! This increase was chiefly driven by real-estate development and the hotel business, where an all time occupancy record for the first half of the year was set (even so no exact numbers were released).

One year before the opening of the second themepark, the Walt Disney Studios, the Euro Disney S.C.A. shares had an early spring time on Monday the 5th of Februaray and increased to of more than 0.80 EUR. This is the highest value since May 2000, in the meantime the shares had also fallen to less than 0.50 EUR in December 2000.

Euro Disney SCA has announced it's unaudited revenues for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2001, which lasted from the 1st of October till the 31st of December 2000.
The operating revenue climbed to 221.7 million Euro slightly up from 219.8 million Euro for the same time of the fiscal year 2000. While the revenues from the themepark, despite a slight increase in attendance, decreased due to lower per guest spending the record hotel occupancy set this and the lower revenues at the Disney Village off. Combined revenues from the hotels and Disney Village increased 3%.

This year's regular Combined General Meeting of the shareholders of the Euro Disney SCA has been announced for the 27th February 2001, 10.00 am at the Newport Bay Club Convention Center.
Invitations and more specific informations should be mailed out to all registered shareholders in mid February.

The Annual Report of Euro Disney SCA (available in French and English) for the fiscal year 2000 has been announced for mid February by the shareholders' office. It will be mailed out to all registered shareholders, can be downloaded from the official website of Disneyland Paris or ordered for free from the shareholders' office.