Merlin Entertainments

Merlin Entertainments Ltd
Company type	Private limited company
Industry	Visitor Attractions
Founded	December 1998; 25 years ago
Headquarters	Poole, Dorset, UK
Key people	Nick Varney (CEO)
Revenue	£1,688 million (2018)
Operating income	£327 million (2018)
Net income	£230 million (2018)
Number of employees	27,000 (2017)
Parent	Blackstone Group 59.6%; Kirkbi A/S [da] 30.6%;
Website	merlinentertainments.biz

Merlin Entertainments Ltd is a British-based entertainments company headquartered in Poole, Dorset (England). It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by a consortium of Kirkbi A/S in November 2019.

History

In December 1998, Nick Varney, Andrew Carter and the senior management team of Vardon Attractions (Vardon plc) completed a management buyout of the company to form Merlin Entertainments Group Ltd. with the backing of the private equity firm Apax Partners. Apax sold the company to another financial investor, Hermes Private Equity, in 2004.^[3] In May 2005, the company was acquired from Hermes by a division of The Blackstone Group ^[4] which later started a major expansion. Over the years, Merlin acquired Legoland, Gardaland, an Italian theme park, and The Tussauds Group. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2013.^[5]

Legoland

When the Legoland theme parks came up for sale, Varney wanted to buy it but Hermes did not want to invest more capital. After the sale of Merlin to Blackstone Group, the company negotiated to buy control of Legoland for about £250 million in 2005, then merged it with Merlin.^[6] As part of the deal, Kirkbi A/S, the investment arm of LEGO owners, took a share in Merlin Entertainments.^[7]^[8]

Tussauds

In May 2007 Blackstone purchased The Tussauds Group, owner of the Madame Tussauds celebrity wax attractions, for US$1.9 billion; this company was merged with Merlin and has since been managed by Merlin.^[9]^[10] After the Tussauds acquisition, Dubai International Capital, the previous owner, received a 20% stake in the combined entity as well as £1.03bn in cash.^[11]^[9]^[12]

On 17 July 2007, as part of the financing for the Tussauds deal, the freeholds of Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Warwick Castle and Madame Tussauds were sold to private investor Nick Leslau and his investment firm Prestbury, with a subsequent leaseback agreement.^[13] Although the attraction sites are owned by Leslau, they are operated by Merlin based on a renewable 35-year lease.^[9]

Florida

On 15 January 2010, Merlin Entertainments bought Cypress Gardens, a defunct theme park in Winter Haven, Florida. It was reopened as Legoland Florida theme park.^[14]

Reports in early October 2017 indicated that Merlin Entertainments was considering a takeover of Sea World in Orlando but on 11 October, the company said it was no longer involved in such discussions.^[15]

Australia and New Zealand

In late 2010, it was announced that Merlin would purchase approximately A$116 million worth of entertainment attractions located in Australia and New Zealand from Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Attractions. The sale would include Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife World, Oceanworld Manly, Sydney Tower and the Koala Gallery in Australia, in addition to Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in New Zealand.^[16] On 3 March 2011, the deal was finalised.^[17] This was followed by the $140 million acquisition of Living and Leisure Australia which owned several attractions in the Asia-Pacific region including UnderWater World, Melbourne Aquarium, Falls Creek Alpine Resort, Hotham Alpine Resort, Otway Fly, Illawarra Fly, Busan Aquarium and Siam Ocean World.^[18]^[19]

On 28 June 2013, Merlin Australia's Madame Tussauds in Sydney placed a wax figure of the former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, into a mock queue of the unemployed at a Centrelink office in central Sydney. Deposed by the Australian Labour Party in the evening of 26 June, and replaced by Kevin Rudd, the publicity stunt drew wide attention, but received some criticism for the "disrespect" shown to the office of the Prime Minister, and the first female political leader of Australia.^[20]

Listing

Merlin had planned to go public in the early 2000s, but market turbulence postponed those plans. Instead, Blackstone sold 20% of the company to the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, reducing Blackstone's holding to 34%. CVC acquired another 8% from the Dubai investment fund which is no longer involved with the company, giving it 28% in all. Kirkbi, a Danish family trust that owns LEGO, also increased its stake, emerging as the largest shareholder, with 36%. CVC paid a price that valued Merlin at £2.25 billion^[21] – more than six times what Merlin and Legoland together were worth when Blackstone acquired them five years earlier. Blackstone's investment was by that point worth more than three and a half times what it had paid.^[22]

On 8 November 2013 Merlin floated 30% of the company on the London Stock Exchange valuing the private equity-backed company at almost £3.4bn.^[23]

In June 2019 the company's board agreed to recommend a takeover offer of £4.8 billion from Kirkbi, CPP Investment Board and The Blackstone Group.^[24] The takeover was approved by the high court in November 2019.^[25]

eOne's multi-territory partnership with Merlin

On 5 December 2019 Entertainment One announced a new multi-territory partnership with Merlin that will open an interactive PJ Masks nautical-themed trail throughout the company's Sea Life aquariums worldwide starting February 2020.^[26]

Further tying into the collaboration between Merlin and eOne, select episodes of PJ Masks season 4 will feature underwater adventures.^[26]

Properties

Theme parks

Name	Location	Year Opened	Year Acquired	Notes
Alton Towers Resort	Staffordshire Moorlands, UK	1860	2007	Acquired in Tussauds Group deal.
Thorpe Park	Chertsey, Surrey, UK	1979	2007	Acquired in Tussauds Group deal.
Chessington World of Adventures Resort	Chessington, Greater London, UK	1987	2007	Acquired in Tussauds Group deal.
Gardaland Resort	Castelnuovo del Garda, Italy	1975	2006	Purchased in 2006 under Blackstone.
Heide Park Resort	Soltau, Lower Saxony, Germany	1978	2007	Acquired in Tussauds Group deal.
Legoland Billund Resort	Billund, Denmark	1968	2005	Acquired in Blackstone deal.
Legoland California	California, USA	1999	2005	Acquired in Blackstone deal.
Legoland Deutschland Resort	Günzburg, Germany	2002	2005	Acquired in Blackstone deal.
Legoland Dubai Resort	Jebel Ali, Dubai, United Arab Emirates	2016	-	Opened as part of the Dubai Parks and Resorts development in Jebel Ali.
Legoland Florida Resort	Winter Haven, Florida, USA	2011	2011	Cypress Gardens acquired and rebranded.
Legoland Japan Resort	Nagoya, Japan	2017	-	New-build theme park.
Legoland Malaysia Resort	Johor Bahru, Malaysia	2012	-	New-build theme park.
Legoland Windsor Resort	Windsor, UK	1996	2005	Acquired in Blackstone deal.

Midway attractions

Name	Location(s)	Year Opened	Year Acquired	Notes
Australian Treetop Adventures	Australia	2005	2010	Canopy walkways acquired in MFS Living and Leisure deal
Blackpool Tower Circus	Blackpool, UK	1894	2011
The Dungeons	Alton Towers Blackpool London Warwick York Edinburgh Berlin Hamburg Amsterdam San Francisco Shanghai Istanbul	2019 2011 1974 - 1975 2000 2013 2000 2005 2014 2018	1992
Eye Brand	Blackpool London Sydney	1894 2000 1981	2011 2007 2011
Falls Creek ski resort	Victoria, Australia	1946	2011	Acquired in MFS Living and Leisure deal
Hotham Alpine Resort	Victoria, Australia	1925	2011	Ski resort acquired in MFS Living and Leisure deal
Madame Tussauds	London Blackpool Vienna Prague Berlin Amsterdam Hollywood Las Vegas Nashville New York Orlando San Francisco Washington D.C. Sydney Beijing Chongqing Shanghai Wuhan Hong Kong New Delhi Tokyo Singapore Istanbul Bangkok Dubai Tashkent
Sea Life	Birmingham Blackpool Brighton Great Yarmouth Gweek Hastings Hunstanton London Scarborough Weymouth Loch Lomond Oban Bray Helsinki The Hague Porto Orlando Melbourne Moolooalba (Sunshine Coast) Sydney Auckland Shanghai Busan Shopping Centre Manchester (Trafford Centre) Paris (Val d'Europe) Arizona (Arizona Mills) Charlotte-Concord (Concord Mills) Grapevine, TX (Grapevine Mills) Kansas City (Crown Center), MO Michigan (Great Lakes) Minnesota (Mall Of America) San Antonio, TX (Rivercenter) New Jersey (American Dream Meadowlands) Bangkok (Siam Paragon) Istanbul Theme Parks Alton Towers Chessington World of Adventures Legoland Windsor Legoland Billund Legoland Deutschland Gardaland Legoland California		2008
LEGOLAND Discovery Centres	Birmingham at Arena Birmingham Manchester at the Trafford Centre Berlin at the Sony Center Oberhausen Phoenix, AZ at Arizona Mills Atlanta, GA at Phipps Plaza Boston, MA Chicago, IL at The Streets of Woodfield Columbus, OH at Easton Town Center Dallas Fort Worth, TX at Grapevine Mills Kansas City, MO at Crown Center Michigan at the Great Lakes Crossing Outlets Philadelphia, PA at the Plymouth Meeting Mall Westchester (New York), NY at Westchester's Ridge Hill San Antonio, TX at the Shops at Rivercenter Toronto at Vaughan Mills Melbourne at the Chadstone Shopping Centre Mt Hotham, AZ at Hotham Alpine Resort Shanghai Shanghai Shenyang Osaka Tokyo Istanbul Under Construction The Hague Miami, FL at American Dream Miami Milpitas, CA at Great Mall of the Bay Area New Jersey at American Dream Meadowlands Pittsburgh at The Mall at Robinson
Peppa Pig World of Play	Auburn Hills, Michigan Grapevine, Texas Chicago, Illinois	2019 2019 2020
Warwick Castle	Warwick, UK	1978	2007	Acquired in Tussauds Group deal.