The family behind toy giant Lego A/S is teaming up with Blackstone Group LP and a Canadian pension fund to buy the owner of Madame Tussauds wax museums and Legoland theme parks in a deal that values the company at GBP4.77 billion ($6.04 billion).
Merlin Entertainments PLC, the world’s second-largest visitor-attraction operator, said Friday it had agreed to be bought by a consortium of Kirkbi — which controls Lego — U.S. private-equity group Blackstone and Canada’s CPPIB. Including debt, the deal is worth GBP5.9 billion.
The British company operates 130 attractions in 25 countries, including several Legoland theme parks and a string of Sea Life aquariums. Last year, it attracted 67 million visitors and reported revenue of GBP1.65 billion. It employs about 28,000 people in peak season.
The deal, one of the largest acquisitions of a U.K.-listed business this year, comes weeks after U.S. activist investor ValueAct Capital urged Merlin to seek a deal to go private. ValueAct owns about 9.3% of Merlin and has pledged to support the deal.
Kirkbi is the investment vehicle of Denmark’s Kirk Kristiansen family, which owns about 75% of Lego, the world’s biggest toy maker. It already owns nearly 30% of Merlin, having held a stake since selling Merlin its Legoland parks in 2005.
Merlin floated on the London Stock Exchange in late 2013, before which it was jointly controlled by Kirkbi and Blackstone for about eight years. The buyers said being a private company again would help Merlin’s management take a longer-term view and better execute its strategy.
Write to Peter Stiff at peter.stiff@wsj.com
Source : MTV
