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EFA Partners and Fitraco Arrange Refinancing for Coaster at World Famous Coney Island Park
January 31, 2022
New York, NY and Antwerp, Belgium (January 31, 2022) – EFA Partners, a boutique financial advisory firm that provides financial services for companies in the entertainment and leisure industries, announced that it jointly worked with Fitraco, an equipment financing company with decades of experience in the theme park sector, to arrange the refinancing of debt for Coney Island's latest thrill ride, The Phoenix, a 68-foot family roller coaster at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park.
The coaster opened to the public this past July after months of anticipation and is adjacent to the park’s iconic Wonder Wheel. It has become an exciting addition to the legendary Coney Island amusement district with its 100+ year history.
The Fitraco/EFA team previously arranged financing for the coaster during early 2021 when the pandemic was more prevalent. Given the more uncertain economic environment at that time, traditional banks were hesitant to provide financing for leisure venues so the Fitraco/EFA team arranged financing with a non-bank specialty lender which had flexible terms but was more expensive as compared to banks. As the pandemic waned, the Fitraco/EFA team again approached the bank market and was able to procure less expensive debt to refinance the specialty lender financing.
The financing 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.
About EFA Partners
EFA Partners is a boutique financial advisory firm with offices in New York and Atlanta focused on the entertainment, media, and technology sectors. It provides investment banking services focused on arranging growth capital, mergers and acquisitions, and financial consulting services. In entertainment, its targeted sectors include family entertainment centers, movie theaters, theme parks, water parks, casinos, concert venues, hospitality, observation wheels, sports, and others. In media and technology, it focuses on companies in film and media services, communications services, SaaS, recorded music, music publishing, and others. Since its inception in 2009, EFA has been retained by over 175 clients, have arranged over $1.5 billion of capital and have advised on over $3 billion of additional capital.
About Fitraco
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.
