The Movie Animation Park Studios (MAPS) in Perak is now closed until further notice, according to a report by Bernama. Based on what have happened for the past few months, it seems quite likely that the closure is due to the huge amount of debts that MAPS has accumulated over the years.
For example, the park was apparently unable to repay its principal payment of RM 25.7 million to lenders last year. This led to the suspension of the Animation Theme Park (ATP) management team which was the developer and operator of MAPS.
However, the Menteri Besar of Perak, Ahmad Faizal Azumu at that time has guaranteed that MAPS would remain open. ATP is owned by the Perak state government since Perak Corporation Berhad has around 51% of shares in the company.
Said to cost more than RM 500 million to build, MAPS which was opened to visitors in June 2017, has also faced licensing issues with DreamWorks as well as the licensor of The Smurfs, IMPS S.A. Frankly speaking, things looked rather bleak for MAPS at the moment and it also showed that the theme park business is quite challenging in Malaysia.
