Company Town : Euro Disney Shares Off 3.3% After French Magazine Projects Lower Park Attendance : Entertainment: The company condemns the report as having ‘no basis in reality,’ says it will provide its own figures next month.

Euro Disney shares fell 3.3% on Monday after a French business magazine reported the park will show substantially lower attendance in the year ended Sept. 30, along with disappointing merchandise and food spending.

The theme park, whose parent company is 49%-owned by Walt Disney Co., quickly refuted the report by L’Expansion, saying it had “no basis in reality.”

Euro Disney’s results for the fiscal year are expected to be released next month. Analysts have expected the company to stem the flow of red ink after losing close to $1 billion in its last fiscal year. In addition, Chairman Philippe Bourguignon said earlier this year that losses would be lower, but he didn’t elaborate.

The company, which is also operated by Disney, underwent a financial restructuring--including a $1-billion rights issue--with its 61 banks earlier this year.

French securities regulators put a warning in the prospectus saying that the company is not expected to be profitable before fiscal 1996. Euro Disney has been plagued by soft attendance since opening in April, 1992. It has been trying to boost the number of visitors to the park by slashing prices and launching special promotions.

But attendance has been falling steadily. In its first year, the park outside Paris had 10.5 million visitors; that fell to 9.8 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1993.

The L’Expansion article claimed total attendance at the park won’t exceed 8.2 million in fiscal 1994. Previously, Euro Disney officials had forecast about 9 million visitors.

The article also said Euro Disney attracted 25,000 visitors on some days in July and that in August the average was 40,000. It added that visitors were spending much less on food and Disney merchandise.

The article also said the average spending on food by each visitor totaled 51 francs, compared to the 53 francs forecast by the company at the time of a restructuring. In addition, average spending on merchandising totaled 48 francs per head, compared to Euro Disney’s forecast of 53 francs, the magazine said.

The article also said revenue will be lower than the $919-million figure in fiscal 1993.

“The attendance figures published in L’Expansion don’t bear any resemblance to reality,” said Jacques-Henri Eyraud, a spokesman for the company. “These figures are wrong, and Euro Disney deplores the slapdash journalism of a magazine whose article contains a number of factual errors.”

Euro Disney declined to comment specifically on L’Expansion’s account of tourist spending.

The company did not supply its own numbers, but it said it will provide data when its results are published in November.

Euro Disney has blamed its problems on the slow European economy, the strong French franc that has made the park more expensive for visitors from surrounding countries and the lack of spending by visiting tourists.

Saudi Prince Al Waleed ibn Talal ibn Abdulaziz al Saud recently announced he would acquire up to 24% of the park. He is believed to own about 10% now.

Disney’s stock closed $1.125 higher at $39 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.