Tussauds sold to Merlin Entertainments for £1 billion

05 March 2007

Dubai International Capital has sold Tussauds Group, the company known worldwide for its Madame Tussauds wax museum and London Eye tourist attractions in London, to Merlin Entertainments, which owns Legoland and other entertainment properties. The price: £1.03 billion (approximately Rs8,885.81 crore). DIC will retain a 20 per cent stake in the combined entity.

Merlin, majority-owned by private equity capital group Blackstone and partly owned by LEGO Holding/KIRKBI groups, operates 38 attractions worldwide. Its brands include Legoland, Sea Life, Gardaland and Earth Explorer.

Tussauds Group consists of London city centre attractions (six Madame Tussauds - London, New York, Amsterdam, Las Vegas, Shanghai and Hong Kong; the British Airways London Eye, and Warwick Castle); and theme parks (Alton Towers; Thorpe Park; Chessington World of Adventures in the UK and Heide Park in Germany).

Exciting combination
Merlin and Tussauds together attracted 30 million visitors to their 50 attractions and four hotels in 2006. Merlin says the Tussauds acquisition would make it the world's second-largest visitor attraction operator after Disney. The two firms operate in 12 countries and employ more than 13,000 people.

Says Merlin's chief executive Nick Varney: "The combination of the Merlin and Tussauds brands, people, and operating expertise will create an exciting and world-beating global entertainment company." He adds: "With such iconic brands, the expanded Merlin will not only have strong development potential, but also an amazingly robust and high value portfolio. Our ambition is to build on this to become the world leader in location-based, branded, family entertainment."

According to Varney, "The deal is a major strategic move for Merlin which has already seen the most successful and dynamic growth in the sector over the last five years. It not only expands our business both geographically and demographically, but also underlines our objective to build a balanced portfolio. The combined group also has the resources and expertise to focus on accelerating current expansion plans for all the brands, particularly in North America."