https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/business/dealbook/seaworld-blackstone-deal.html
Over seven years, the Blackstone Group nearly tripled its investment in SeaWorld, the home of Shamu and other killer whales.
But that home-run return came with a major headache: dealing with the repercussions of “Blackfish,” a searing documentary that castigated SeaWorld’s treatment of orca whales in captivity.
Now Blackstone is finally free of that burden. On Friday, the company sold its stake in SeaWorld to Zhonghong Group, a Chinese investment firm, for about $449 million. The deal will pave the way for SeaWorld to open parks in China.
The sale was a quiet end to an investment Blackstone had once been happy to promote. At onetime, the company let two SeaWorld penguins roam the halls of its stately Manhattan offices and shake appendages with its chief executive, Stephen A. Schwarzman.
But owning SeaWorld became a liability to its reputation after “Blackfish” debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which was eventually picked up by CNN, offered an indictment of SeaWorld’s care of Tilikum, an orca that became one of the park’s biggest stars, but that also was involved in the deaths of three people, including his trainer.
Outrage over the film metastasized quickly into calls to prohibit keeping killer whales in captivity. Firms like Southwest Airlines severed ties to SeaWorld. The controversy eventually depressed attendance at SeaWorld’s theme parks, leading to the ouster of its chief executive in 2015.
Since then, SeaWorld has stopped breeding whales and announced plans to phase out its famous orca shows in favor of attractions without live animals.
Nevertheless, SeaWorld proved a winner for Blackstone financially. The firm’s final return amounted to about $1.7 billion, or 2.7 times its original investment, according to a person briefed on the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly. That figure includes all of the stock Blackstone sold and the dividends it collected from the company.
SeaWorld said that Blackstone sold its remaining 19.5 million shares to Zhonghong at $23 each, or 26 percent more than the closing price Thursday.
Blackstone declined to comment on the stake sale.
