Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc. of British Columbia, North America's largest ski resort and host of the 2010 Winter Olympics, has registered plans for an initial public offering with Canadian securities regulators.
The company's filings do not indicate either the number of shares to be sold or their offering price, but said they would be offered by Intrawest, ULC, which created Whistler Blackcomb in 1997 by merging two adjacent resorts. Intrawest was nearly forced by creditors to liquidate its stake in the resort on the eve of the winter olympics.
The deal is being managed by CIBC World Markets, RBC Dominion Securities and eight other investment banks. Whistler Blackcomb plans to list shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange after the sale.
In its filing, Whistler Blackcomb listed total revenues of C$218.7 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2009, including C$104.3 million for lift operations, C$20.6 million for ski school operations and $40.1 million for retail and rental operations.
The company disclosed that skier visits fell 11.2% to 1.67 million last season – the lowest level in the combined resort’s history – as skiers sought to avoid crowds drawn by the winter Olympics. The sharp drop came despite record snowfall of 1,486 centimeters. Skier visits at Whistler-Blackcomb are off 24% from the 2007-08 season compared to a 3.9% decline for North American resorts as a whole.
Intrawest is a unit of New York-based Fortress Investment Group LLC, the buyout and hedge-fund firm run by Daniel Mudd.
