Disney To Open Shanghai Park Next Week

Walt Disney Co said it would reopen Shanghai Disneyland to a reduced number of visitors next week.

Bob Chapek, who became Disney's chief executive in February just as the novel coronavirus was spreading around the globe, said Disney would reopen the Shanghai park on May 11.

The Chinese government has asked Disney to cap attendance at 30% of capacity, or roughly 24,000 people, Chapek said. Disney will restart operations with "far below" that number for a few weeks while it adjusts to new safeguards including social distancing, masks and temperature screenings, he said.

It is unclear when Disney's other parks in Asia, the United States and France would again welcome visitors, executives said, or when the company's range of idled businesses including retail stores and cruise ships would return.

"While it's too early to predict when we'll be able to begin resuming all of our operations, we are evaluating a number of different scenarios to ensure a cautious, sensible and deliberate approach to the eventual reopening of our parks," Chapek said.

Disney estimated that global measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic cut profits by US$1.4 billion, mostly from its shuttered theme parks.

Just three months ago, Disney was boasting about a record year for its movie studio and a strong start to the company's dive into the streaming media wars.

In late January, the coronavirus started battering businesses across Disney's global portfolio when the company shuttered Shanghai Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland.

By mid-March, all of the company's theme parks were closed, movie theatres went dark, and television and film production were put on hold. Plus, Disney's ESPN sports network was left with no major live sports to broadcast.

"In total, we estimate that the Covid-19 impacts on our current quarter income from continuing operations before income taxes across all of our businesses was as much as US$1.4 billion," Disney said, adding that US$1 billion of that came from losses at theme parks.

Disney posted adjusted earnings per share of 60 cents for January through March, down 63% from a year earlier and short of the 89 cents expected by analysts, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Net income from continuing operations dropped 91% to US$475 million.

Disney said it will not pay a dividend for the first half of the fiscal year, which will preserve US$1.6 billion in cash assuming it had kept the dividend constant at 88 cents per share. (Reuters)