Posted
Blackstone Group, the world’s largest private-equity firm, may buy A-B InBev’s theme parks, which include SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, for about $2.5 billion to $3 billion, unnamed sources told The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.
Read more from Bloomberg and St. Louis Business Journal.
That seems like a really good deal. Loosely figuring all parks attendance at around 20 million per year, at $50 per-cap including attendance (just a lowball guess) they would cashflow over a billion per year. I like that Blackstone seems to be more in the buy-and-hold mentality, too. Hopefully this will be good.
There are obviously significant differences in the actions of a private equity firm and those of a "mom and pop" CEO with no experience in big business.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
Blackstone won't have any stake in NBC Universal. And they own (a majority I believe) of Merlin. I don't understand your question.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
I'm not sure if there's a reason to combine operations, though the original sources I heard from (months ago now) suggested that it was specifically Merlin that was the unit moving on the acquisition. I never quite understood that, as I would assume that Merlin as its own entity is not capitalized enough to make that kind of buy without the mothership. So goes my understanding of corporate finance!
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
Jeff said:
I never quite understood that, as I would assume that Merlin as its own entity is not capitalized enough to make that kind of buy without the mothership. So goes my understanding of corporate finance!
No, you had it right. They aren't capitalized enough to do it as is. So, either they are doing an IPO, as mentioned previously, or Blackstone is funding a new "fund", that will buy the parks unit, and Merlin manages it in a cross licensing agreement.
So any chance they have a soft spot for suspended coasters? ;)
Fongers! LOL
$1 Billion a year on admission alone. That's a real eye-opener as to the amount of money involved. I remember a while back, someone here mentioned something about Disney World (or the Magic Kingdom at least) being able to sustain itself on soda sales alone. But I've also heard that the Busch parks are the most expensive parks in the industry to operate.
So will, the parks be re-branded as Merlin Gardens?
AV Matt
Long live the Big Bad Wolf
I think there may be a twist to all of this that people aren't expecting.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
In what universe do you think that's gonna happen? The ride is already coming down.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
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