Six Flags has appointed another private equity investor to its Board of Directors.
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation announced last week that it has named Jonathan Brudnick to its Board of Directors. Brudnick is a partner at Sachem Head, a New York investment management firm. he has been with the firm since 2017, having worked for other private equity and public market investment firms before that.
"It is a privilege to join the Six Flags Board at such a pivotal moment for the Company, and we appreciate the constructive engagement we have had with the Board and management team," Brudnick said in a press release from Six Flags. "We invested in Six Flags because we strongly believe in the potential of the business and that numerous pathways exist to addressing the Company’s current undervaluation. I look forward to working with my fellow directors to continue the important work underway to ensure Six Flags builds on its legacy as the premier amusement park company in North America."
Brudnick joins three other investment managers on the Six Flags board, which now stands at 13 members but will drop to 11 members following the departure of current Chairman Selim Bassoul and another member at the end of the year.
Six Flags has had a rough relationship with the investment community since the merger of the former Cedar Fair and Six Flags companies closed in July 2024. The company's stock has lost two-thirds of value since its post-merger peak, closing Friday at $20.88 a share.
That has led some investors to call for Six Flags not just to change its leadership - which it has, with both Chairman Bassoul and CEO Richard Zimmerman announcing their departures - but also to change the way it does business.
One frequent demand has been for Six Flags to sell the land underneath its parks and lease it back, which would provide an immediate cash windfall to investors. Of course, that move from the private equity playbook has resulted in the bankruptcy and even liquidation of countless other once-popular consumer businesses over the past decade. But the investors did well before they sold, ahead of the bankruptcy.
Bringing Brudnick onto the Six Flags board means that the company will face one less potential threat from activist investors trying to undermine the board's decisions. As a condition of Brudnick's appointment, Sachem Head has agreed to vote its shares in favor of Board recommendations, as outlined in this 8-K filing with the SEC.
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And the rapid decline of SF continues, and is taking the legacy Cedar Fair parks down with it. Private equity has no place in the theme park business, because the short term goals of investors never mesh with the long game companies in this industry MUST play. You can't just wave a magic wand and fix aging theme parks with a massive infusion of cash. You have to be slow and methodical, and change the culture and perception of your park if you want to succeed and ultimately become a profitable business.