Mr Balnaves, a former media executive who ran TV production house Southern Star, announced his retirement last month, having chaired Ardent Leisure for 13 years. The move was due to take effect in November.

But with Ardent Leisure's shareholders due to gather at the Mint in Sydney on Thursday for the company's annual meeting and an update on the group's theme parks, bowling alleys, marinas and health centres across Australia and the United States, the tone is set to be anything but a triumphant sendoff.

With the death of four visitors at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast and a coronial investigation underway to examine the accident on Tuesday, another round of uncertainty is set to descend over the business.

It's not the first time the theme park operator finds itself in strife: With all Dreamworld's image of family fun and easy going life on the Gold Coast, its corporate history has been chequered, including trading in and out of receivership.

Since Joh Bjelke-Petersen opened the theme park in 1981, Dreamworld has been an enormous boon to the economy on the Gold Coast.

Initially it employed 220 people and offered a boost to the local tourism industry, helping grow the area's fun park industry.

Dreamworld was originally owned by its creator John Longhurst, the father of Australian water-ski champion and two time Bathurst 1000 winner Tony Longhurst. In 1989, Bruce Jenkins's Dreamco purchased the park from Longhurst. The Dreamco company went into administration a year later.

It took until 1994 for the company to trade its way back into the black. In 1996, the business was acquired by Singaporean businessman Kua Phek Long before a consortium called Leisure Wide Property Trust purchased Dreamworld from Mr Kua in 1998.

By 1999, a voracious Macquarie Bank saw value in the assets and packaged them up in one of its externally managed funds, Macquarie Leisure Trust.

But as the global financial crisis took hold and threatened the Macquarie model of externally managed trusts, Ardent Leisure took over from Macquarie Leisure Trust in 2009.

In August, Ardent reported a 32 per cent jump in net profit to $42 million with a 16 per cent jump in revenues from continuing operations. Revenue from its theme park business, which includes Dreamworld, rose 8 per cent to $107 million.

For all of Dreamworld's popularity on the Gold Coast, the company's future appears not to be focussed on Australia. Mr Balnaves acknowledged future growth of the business lay in the United States.

"The result supports the board's decision to continue prioritising investment in our high‐growth, high‐returning [US] business, and implement strategies to improve the performance of our Australian divisions," Mr Balnaves said in August.

Significantly, the average spending per customer at its local theme parks fell 4.5 per cent in the period to $44.57 from $46.68.

Share sell-off

Ardent Leisure shares fell 7.8 per cent on news of the accident on Tuesday and were down another 12 per cent by midday on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, Ardent Leisure was seen as a potential seller of Dreamworld to Wanda, a Chinese competitor, which recently purchased Jurassic World producer Legendary Entertainment and wants to build a theme park on the Gold Coast. The company said at the time it was open to working with the Chinese theme park operator.

Considering the ups and downs of its history, Ardent has been under pressure over the past year over the appointment of the former boss of the Australian Women's Weekly, Deborah Thomas, as its chief executive.

The company's market value slumped more than $200 million right after the company announced the appointment in March last year and Mr Balnaves was forced to defend the board's choice to the investment community, with some expressing concern about Ms Thomas's lack of operational experience running a leisure company.

Ardent has been contacted about Thursday's annual meeting. In a statement released after the accident on Tuesday, it said it had decided to keep Dreamworld's doors closed on Wednesday and would be "providing an update to the public as soon as information becomes available".