Embattled Six Flags CEO Selim Bassoul gets vote of confidence from theme park’s biggest investor

Six Flags’ controversial new CEO — who drew fire this month for disparaging the company’s theme parks as “cheap day care centers for teenagers” — just got a major vote of confidence from the company’s biggest shareholder.

H Partners Management — a New York-based hedge fund that is a longtime Six Flags investor — scooped up half a million shares in the giant theme park chain, increasing its stake to 12.5% as of Tuesday, according to securities filings.

The fund’s decision to double down is a move that experts say is likely a show of support for the company’s CEO Selim Bassoul — despite a miserable earnings report earlier this month that sent Six Flags shares tumbling 18% in a single day.

The Arlington, Texas-based company disclosed Aug. 11 that it lost nearly 2 million customers this year as it raised prices. To make matters worse, Bassoul told analysts on a conference call that the chain was looking to upgrade its clientele from “Walmart and Kmart” shoppers to Target shoppers — comments that sparked customer outrage on social media.

Bassoul also riled customers after he said the company is trying to move away from being “cheap day care centers” for “rowdy” teenagers.

But H Partners, which once held a 30% stake in Six Flags, has a long history with the company, shepherding it through its 2009 bankruptcy.  

“They played a big role helping the company to emerge from bankruptcy in 2010,” Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett told The Post. “They are clearly on board with the long term strategy and willing to look past what has been a rocky start for the new CEO.”

The shares were up 4.2% at $25.44 on Wednesday.

“A lot of people were just flabbergasted about how rocky the second quarter was,” added Crockett, who has since slashed his price target on the shares by 50% to $28. “But this idea of charging more, reducing the crowds and improving the [customer] experience is frankly a page out of the Disney playbook.”

Bassoul was named CEO in November after serving on the company’s board since 2020 alongside representatives of the hedge fund.

“He’s someone the board knows well and [it] clearly knows his personality,” Crockett added.

H Partners did not respond to a request for comment.

Wall Street analysts slashed their ratings and estimates after the miserable quarterly report, with one analyst describing Six Flags results as “indefensible.”

Many Six Flags insiders and park goers likewise said they’ve seen enough of Bassoul and want him canned.

“We cancelled our diamond elite passes today, based on how he views guests,” a Reddit user wrote after the earnings call. “We won’t burden his company with [our] working class money anymore.”

Insiders started a Reddit thread entitled “Step down Selim.”