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EFA Partners and Fitraco Arrange Financing for New Coaster at World Famous Coney Island Park

August 9, 2021

New York, NY and Antwerp, Belgium (August 9, 2021) – EFA Partners, a boutique financial advisory firm that provides financial services for companies in the entertainment and leisure industries, today announced that it jointly worked with Fitraco, an equipment financing company with decades of experience in the theme park sector, to arrange financing for Coney Island's newest thrill ride, The Phoenix, a 68-foot family roller coaster at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park.

The coaster is an exciting addition to the legendary Coney Island amusement district with its 100+ year history. The Phoenix opened to the public in early July after months of anticipation and is adjacent to the park’s iconic Wonder Wheel. 

Financing for the Phoenix was part of the ongoing joint Fitraco/EFA Partners program which has arranged attraction financing for other theme parks and leisure companies. The program focuses on equipment financing for theme parks, water parks, and family entertainment centers. The principals of the two firms collectively have over 100 years of experience arranging financing in the leisure sector.

Led by Edward Bolluijt who has over 30 years of experience in the leisure sector, Fitraco’s core business is the leasing of large equipment for amusement parks. It was founded in 1983 and began its distinguished history with the leasing of the famous Boomerang roller coaster to the La Ronde theme park in Montreal, Canada. Now based in Antwerp, Belgium and New York, NY, Fitraco remains exclusively committed to the leisure industry.

EFA Partners’ principals, Ralph Willis, Kenny Favre, and Brandt Gully, have over 70 years of financing experience in the leisure, entertainment, and media sectors. They founded EFA in 2009 with offices in New York and Atlanta as a boutique investment banking firm. Its targeted sectors include family entertainment centers, theme parks, water parks, movie theaters, casinos, film and media services, concert venues, hospitality, sports, and others. The company focuses on arranging capital, mergers and acquisitions, and other financial consulting services. EFA has been retained by over 160 clients and has advised and arranged on over $3 billion of capital. Prior to forming EFA, the three principals founded and led GE Capital’s entertainment finance group in 2004 where they arranged over $3 billion of financing including over $500 million for theme parks, water parks, and family entertainment centers.

“I’ve known Edward for many years dating back to when I was with GE and we jointly arranged over $20 million of financing for Wild Adventures theme park in Georgia almost 20 years ago,” said Ralph Willis, Managing Partner and a founding principal of EFA Partners. “It has been great putting our joint financing program in place to arrange growth capital for leisure companies as the industry performs well this year with strong increases in attendance and revenue.”

“I’ve known Ralph and the EFA team for many years and am excited to work with them for our financing program,” said Edward Bolluijt, Chief Executive Officer of Fitraco. “It was a pleasure working with them for the Phoenix financing which was not an easy transaction to structure when we started the financing process early this year. Going forward, we have a strong pipeline and I look forward to working with EFA for future attraction financings.”

Leading provider of digital media services for film and television

Background: Seasoned management team formed new film and television digital media services company and approached EFA to arrange financing for potential acquisition targets.

EFA Process: The company retained EFA to arrange acquisition financing and EFA approached several banks and specialty lenders.

Result: Closed debt financing to support two company acquisitions and working capital facility.

start quoteWe selected EFA as our advisor due to their financial experience specific to the film and television services sector. The past year has been tremendous for us as we significantly grew our business with EFA arranging financing that allowed us to execute on our growth plans very quicklyend quote

John Suh
Co-Founder and Co-President of  Pixelogic

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Television broadcast company owning and operating WGGB-TV and WGGB-TV D2, the ABC and FOX network affiliates serving the Springfield-Holyoke, MA market

Background: Initially approached by Gormally Broadcasting to arrange financing to recapitalize the company and fund planned acquisition growth. EFA became company’s sell-side advisor when industry changes and market forces made exploring a sale a more advantageous and financially rewarding strategic option for the company.

EFA Process: EFA was successful in securing financing commitments to fund a recapitalization and several acquisitions during the initial engagement focus. However, marketplace dynamics noted above resulted in EFA recommending a company sale. EFA provided a tailored, results-oriented approach from start to finish.

Result: EFA identified Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP) as the leading buyer and managed all aspects of the sale, maximizing the sales price received for the company.

start quoteIt was a pleasure working with Dave Harrington and the team at EFA. Through Dave’s deep industry knowledge, relationships and marketplace expertise, we were able to maximize the ultimate value of our company’s broadcast assets. end quote

John Gormally,
Founder, Owner and President of Gormally Broadcasting

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Growing movie theatre company that provides an in-theatre dining experience with over 300 screens throughout the US

Background: Longtime client that initially approached EFA seeking junior capital to grow its business.

EFA Process: After reviewing the company's capital structure and growth plans EFA recommended a financing structure that would recapitalize the company and provide significant growth capital.

Result: Closed three financings that recapitalized the company and provided growth for new theatres. Studio Movie Grill also retained EFA for M&A opportunities and to assist with restructuring process.

start quoteWe were delighted to work with the EFA Partners team on our second successful financing with them. Their wide range of capital markets experience, banking relationships and deep knowledge of the cinema and location-based entertainment industries made them the perfect choice to assist with our financing efforts, which support SMG's active growth strategy. end quote

Brian Schultz,
Owner, founder and President of Studio Movie Grill

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Television and motion picture post-production and digital content management services

Background: Company approached EFA seeking refinancing of its debt subsequent to other advisors attempting to do so with a combination of senior debt and equity.

EFA Process: After reviewing its capital structure EFA recommended a debt structure to fully refinance the company's debt.

Result: Closed senior debt facility that refinanced the company's existing debt, which was much more cost-effective than equity.

start quoteThe EFA team proposed a creative strategy to recapitalize Modern VideoFilm that met our needs in a way that was unique and different from what other financial advisory firms proposed to us. We appreciated their understanding of the entertainment industry and EFA's extensive financial relationships and we look forward to continuing our relationship. end quote

Moshe Barkat,
CEO and President of Modern VideoFilm

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Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's well established movie theatre company - with almost 300 screens located throughout the US

Background: Landmark approached EFA for an equipment financing to convert its screens from 35mm to digital projection.

EFA Process: While the company had many financing options given its strong ownership, its management was busy with business operations and retained EFA to handle the digital conversion financing process.

Result: Closed equipment financing facility utilized for all of its digital projectors. EFA led all aspects of the financing including negotiation of complex digital cinema conversion agreements.

start quoteEFA's unique knowledge and experience with film exhibition and digital cinema was extremely helpful in leading our financing process. Landmark prides itself in providing the best customer experience to its patrons and we are excited that this financing will allow us to continue that with our digital conversion. end quote

Sky Hansen,
Chief Financial Officer of Landmark Theatres

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Provider of digital information services to the film industry

Background: Company approached EFA seeking funding to refinance debt and provide growth capital.

EFA Process: After reviewing its capital structure and growth plans, EFA approached the specialty lender market and arranged debt facility. Subsequently, company retained EFA as sell-side advisor. 

Result: Arranged debt for refinaning existing debt and for growth. Also, handled sale process from start to close for successful sale of business.

start quoteIt was a pleasure to work with the team at EFA Partners who served as our advisor on the sale of West World Media. Through deep industry knowledge, relationships and marketplace expertise, we were able to achieve a successful outcome. end quote

Brett West
Founder and President of West World Media

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Television industry management group formed to manage and operate US TV stations

Background: Huntington approached EFA seeking capital for potential television station acquisitions.

EFA Process: EFA understood that private equity firms and lenders are seeking experienced management teams to back for acquisition opportunities in the television sector.

Result: EFA has introduced the company to several private equity firms as well as senior lenders, resulting in bids for groups of television stations and the company continues to seek other opportunities, with EFA’s assistance.

start quoteWe are acutely aware of the trends that are transforming the local broadcast TV business and have recently begun to explore opportunities to acquire stations. We are very excited about the prospects for the industry and the opportunities to capitalize upon. We are also pleased to have EFA Partners as our financial advisor as their many years of media industry experience and extensive financial relationships will help us accomplish our goal of building a best-in-class station group.

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David Tynan,
CEO of Huntington Broadcast Management Group

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