Investors in SeaWorld got soaked Wednesday as shares of the embattled theme-park operator tumbled 33 percent — erasing $832 million from shareholder portfolios.
The company said it expects revenue to decrease by up to 7 percent this year — a drop greater than Wall Street expected — as the fallout from “Blackfish,” a documentary last year about the alleged harm caused to orca whales in captivity, started to hurt attendance.
Last month, amid the “Blackfish” controversy, Southwest Airlines announced it would end its 26-year partnership with the Orlando, Fla., company.
To be sure, the company finds itself in a tough position that it appears to be ignoring.
In a statement accompanying the release of its second-quarter results, executives didn’t even mention the documentary — instead attributing “lower attendance at [our] destination parks” to a late start to summer for some schools, the new Harry Potter attraction at Universal Orlando Resort . . . and proposed legislation in California that would outlaw orcas in theme parks.
In this murky financial situation, one thing is clear: The Blackstone Group, which bought SeaWorld less than five years ago, is feeling a lot less pain than some other shareholders.
The buyout firm run by billionaire Steve Schwarzman has cashed out about $2.2 billion since buying the company in December 2009. There have been five exit events in less than five years.
Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services, a consulting firm, said the short-term investment focus of the private-equity giant likely hurt SeaWorld during a time it needed to shift its business strategy.
“They didn’t take the offensive soon enough on ‘Blackfish,’ ” he told The Post.
“An owner for whom this was the core focus may have addressed it differently.”
The documentary was released in July 2013 — just months after SeaWorld’s April 18 initial public offering, in which Blackstone sold $505 million worth of shares.
The film, which was aired on CNN, made the alleged mistreatment of orcas a national issue — and energized animal rights activists.
Six months after the film’s opening, SeaWorld took out ads defending its treatment of the whales. The same month, Blackstone returned to the equity markets and sold more shares, pocketing $584.2 million.
Blackstone countered the charge that its response was too meek.
“The idea that we do not care long-term about SeaWorld is nonsense. We are partners with our portfolio companies and worked very closely with SeaWorld to aggressively counter misinformation and get the facts out to the public,” a Blackstone spokesman told The Post.
What is not in dispute is that Blackstone has been busy cashing out of SeaWorld, even by PE standards.
Even after it took dividends and sold down its stake to the tune of $2.2 billion, Blackstone still owns a 22.5 percent piece of SeaWorld worth $382.5 million, based on Wednesday’s close at $18.90 a share.
SeaWorld, in Wednesday’s earnings call, also said it would increase capital spending from 10 percent to 13 percent of revenue.
“This snowball is getting larger and larger and it has to be crushed by SeaWorld,” Speigel said, alluding to the “Blackfish” controversy.