Good morning! In this weekly snapshot:

• Cedar Fair merges with Six Flags in the hope of recovering business following the COVID-19 pandemic🎢

• Hollywood Actors Union Board approves deal ending the longest strike against major studios in Hollywood history🎥 

• Weekly market update📈

A New Era of Amusement Parks

Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. and Six Flags Entertainment Corp. announced a merger aimed at post-COVID-19 recovery in the U.S. amusement park industry. Valued at approximately $8 billion, including debt, this merger unites Cedar Fair's portfolio, famed for Peanuts characters, with Six Flags' properties, known for Warner Bros and DC. Comics characters. The combined entity, to be called Six Flags and trade under Cedar Fair's ticker (NYSE: FUN), will comprise 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks, and 9 resort properties across North America.

Impact and Future Prospects

This merger, creating the largest regional amusement park company globally, has raised concerns among fans and industry observers about potential changes, including park closures and name changes. However, Cedar Fair has downplayed the likelihood of name changes, emphasizing the strong legacy of its brand. The merger is expected to enhance competition against industry giants like SeaWorld Entertainment and Disney's theme parks, with a possible introduction of a national pass network. Scheduled to finalize in the first half of 2024, the merger represents a significant shift in the amusement park landscape, promising a unique blend of entertainment offerings from two industry leaders.

Screen Actors Guild Agreement With Hollywood Studios

In July of this year, 160,000 SAG-AFTRA union actors went on strike, which lasted 118 days. Demanding increased wages and job security. SAG-AFTRA has agreed with Hollywood to increase minimum wages by seven percent, alongside one billion dollars in compensation and benefits for reaching streaming service viewership thresholds. Other than appropriate pay, the union was focused on AI protection, stating that “ there’s a really robust set of protections for performers that I think will not only protect them during the trial of this contract but for many years thereafter”.

Ripple effect: The SAG-AFTRA strike delayed several anticipated films and television shows. Many releases were pushed from their original 2024 dates to later 2025 dates. While Sony executives reported minimal losses during the strike, they caution against the ripple effect that will result from the 118-day lockout. “Even after the strike ends, it will take time for business activities to normalize due to the concentration of productions and theatrical releases, so we expect this to have a negative impact on next fiscal year’s results”. 

📈 Market Updates

Economic Pulse 🌐 

Though the European Central Bank is promising to keep interest rates high, investors are skeptical, as market pricing implies around a 75% chance deposit rates will be cut from 4% during next year’s April meeting. Yields on European government bonds have also seen recent drops in value, reflecting expectations of rate cuts in 2024.

On the other hand, China experienced deflation in the month of October, as CPI figures have fallen 0.2% from the last month and 0.1% from the last year. Concerns have materialized over a potential start of a deflationary era in China, as the nation continues to tighten export restrictions within a trade war with the West.

Money Moves 💰️ 

After a months-long saga, a Glencore-led consortium has acquired Canadian miner Teck’s steelmaking coal unit for $9B, pending government approval. Glencore, a global commodity giant, will receive 77% of the Vancouver-based business. According to CEO Gary Nagle, they intend to split into two entities and put combined coal operations into a new company listed on the NYSE within two years.

Elsewhere, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca paid $185M upfront and up to an additional $1.8B to license an anti-obesity experimental pill from Chinese biopharmaceutical company Eccogene.

In other ‘tech’, TikTok’s parent company Bytedance is offering to buy back at least $300M worth of shares from its employees outside the United States for $160/share, which places a valuation of the company at $224B.

📞Word on the Street

• SpaceX cleared for the second round of Starship launches.

• The USA combats Fentanyl importation.

• The cast of ‘Friends' tribute to Matthew Perry.

Writers: Joshua Cristofoli, Tomas Serrano and Simon Ing

Senior Editor: Amyn Dehal

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