What's new

¿Possible Busch Gardens acquisition in the future?

Do you think it will happen in the near future?


  • Total voters
    21

Pink Cadillac

Giga Poster
Not news and not a rumour, but let me post this and run.
Could UK-based Merlin Entertainments be about to make an attempt to buy Busch Gardens from struggling SeaWorld?

Recent reports have suggested that the Florida-headquartered theme park operator has brought in external financial advisers to examine the company, leading to speculation about possible sales and reorganizations.

If this does go ahead, Merlin is likely to be one of the companies interested in the assets.

The Skift Daily newsletter puts you ahead of everyone about the future of travel, subscribe.



Speaking after the company’s first-half results, Merlin chief financial officer Anne-Francoise Nesmes said it was keeping a close eye on Busch Gardens.

“It takes two parties to do a deal so we do not know what SeaWorld’s intentions are but we do believe that those assets [Busch Gardens] are interesting and we could certainly do a lot with them particularly around accommodation, so to us it’s about having the right discussion with a willing partner and making sure we have the right financial return,” Nesmes said.

Merlin’s interest shouldn’t come as a surprise given that one of the six pillars of its current strategy is acquisitions. In 2012 the company acquired Living and Leisure Australia Groupto expand into the Asia Pacific region and last year bought a stake in sightseeing company Big Bus Tours.

SeaWorld’s many struggles over the last few years have been well documented. Despite planning to phase out the breeding and showing of killer whales, it is still suffering from the damaging legacy of the Blackfish documentary. 2016 was a very bad year for the company.

Seaworld is due to update the market next week with its second quarter results, which is when we could find out what it intends to do with the business.


TERRORISM IMPACT
Merlin’s first-half results show it is managing to mitigate some of the impact from the recent spate of terrorism in the UK.

In London, which is the biggest market for its Midway Attractions division, the company benefited from the weak pound with foreign visitors showing up in greater numbers but at the same time domestic demand was “immediately and significantly reduced” following the attacks. Merlin said it remained “cautious on international visitation over the key summer trading period given the lag between international bookings and visitation.”

During the first half of its financial year, Merlin saw the number of visitors increase by 6.2 percent to 29.7 million with revenue up 19.4 percent to $893 million (£685 million). Pre-tax profit was unchanged at $65 million (£50 million).

Meanwhile, one of Merlin’s big new investments, Legoland New York, is making progress.

The park, which will be the third under the brand in the U.S., is scheduled to open in 2019 and is going through planning approval at the moment with the Goshen, New York town council. It is set to meet in the next few months to decide.

“The timetable is really dependent on getting that planning application through and we remain positive that it will come through in the later part of this year,” Nesmes said.
article source
What yall think
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
With SeaWorld's financial problems and Merlin being the biggest entertainments company in the world, should Merlin buy-out the SeaWorld company?

They said they would be interested in purchasing the Busch Gardens parks if SeaWorld files for bankruptcy, but would it be possible for them to take over all of SeaWorld? They purchased the Tussauds group in 2011 (I believe) and expanded their market drastically. Would they want to spread across to the US and maybe rebrand the SeaWorld's to their Sea Life brand? They would have the money to do so, and potentially (hopefully) turn things around.

What do you guys think?
 
  • Like
Reactions: JSM

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
There might be a faint hope that Merlin goes through with the purchase, and that when they have the first meeting with BGW to discuss new additions and the boss draws up some plans with shipping containers, the Busch veterans rise up and teach him how you really make a successful park. Enlightened, the boss goes back to his superiors in Europe and makes the board of Merlin realize the errors of their ways. Cue an everlasting golden age of impressive coasters, and Merlin driving Parques Reunidos into bankruptcy.

...one can dream, right?
 

Pink Cadillac

Giga Poster
Do Merlin even know what the parks look like? They will have a heart attack once they see all the brightly coloured coasters without foreboding themeing.
 

Pear

Strata Poster
Yeah I agree. Merlin is not good but PR is the lowest of the low when it comes to running a park. Lake Compounce was horrible this year under their management and Movie Park Germany is one of the worst parks I've ever been to.
 

TheCoasterCruiser

Giga Poster
^ It's a beautiful thought, but I would argue that you'd get more suffering out of a PR acquisition.
It's honestly quite sad if this ends up happening. PR is - as someone said above - the ultimate low.
I agree that Merlin can be **** too, but they just seem to give a couple more ****s in general.
 

Pink Cadillac

Giga Poster
The USA already has PR parks but doesn't have any major Merlin parks.
I can't see PR running SeaWorld Orlando. I mean they'd have to invest regularly.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Terrible idea! Horrible! @CP6, stop this if you can! Punch someone if you have to! SeaWorld looks like too nice a park to be left to rot by that devilish company! They're like that villain in Ghostrider 2, anything they touch decays and smolders away! Just have a look at the other parks they own, or worse, their website! Do you see anything there that even remotely resembles passion for amusement parks? It's all shareholder information and bragging about how efficient they are at generating money - which is kind of easy when the parks have massive incomes yet expenses are cut to the bone and investments are generally avoided. I've yet to see one park of theirs that has run even half as well after acquisition as it did before. Sure, they can make the shareholders happy, but they have no passion for their customers at all. Their strategy can best be compared to leaving a somewhat successful RCT park running overnight - only that the money generated by morning is given to shareholders instead of being used to build anything.
 
Top