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Merlin's £200 million acquisition fund

Ben said:
Where is this all coming from? A source would be nice.
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QFT

Merlin having just invested a fair amount into Blackpool tourist attractions, I'm not sure if that makes it more or less likely that they'll buy out the Pleasure Beach. When they grabbed the tower and Louis Tussauds it was obvious that they'd try to group together those two and the SeaLife (which I assume they do, like in London). So I'm not sure if that would make them want to acquire BPB to allow them to group that in with them, or if they'd rather not. If they did try to I wouldn't be surprised if they were stopped due to monopoly reasons. Does anyone know how BPB are doing since getting Nickelodeon Land?

Although Port Aventura would be a more likely choice for them to invest in (in my opinion) I'm sure PA is worth a lot more than £200 million, don't they have 4 hotels? All of pretty nice quality, and across a fairly huge bit of land.
Oh, and Google says 200 British pounds = 234.26563 Euros. Just to put that in perspective.
 
dj-fireball999 said:
I know that Merlin are trying to buy PortAventura. Not sure how far they're getting with that.
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How do you know this? It can't be public domain stuff or it would have been all over CF before.
 
I really hope that this has nothing to do with Pleasure Beach or Port Aventura, the thought of Merlin being in charge of either of my favourite parks concerns me!
 
Merlin linked to Camelot... I just can't see any connection :p

(and £200 million for Camelot? :lol: ).
 
Martyn B said:
^ If I'm right in thinking, there's more than just the park.... (hotel and conference centre?)
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Alton, Thorpe, Warwick and Madame Tussauds all fetched £622 million together. so an even split makes each one worth less that £200 million. It certainly wouldn't seem that Camelot has £200 million of "worth" no matter what :)
 
I've never heard anything about this buying PA thing. I think this is just a rumour based in the fact they used to have shares in it as Tussauds, and wishful thinking from UK enthusiasts.

The "becoming better than Disney" thing is true, and the way they are going about it is to own SO MUCH as oppose to actually make quality individual attractions, like Disney do. I still doubt it'll ever happen. They'd have to own every major attractions company in the world. :p
 
furie said:
Martyn B said:
^ If I'm right in thinking, there's more than just the park.... (hotel and conference centre?)
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Alton, Thorpe, Warwick and Madame Tussauds all fetched £622 million together. so an even split makes each one worth less that £200 million. It certainly wouldn't seem that Camelot has £200 million of "worth" no matter what :)
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There's a random million there - I think you mean Camelot has £200 of worth.

The 140-acre site does include a hotel and conference centre (and vague plans for housing) but I don't think the current owners paid anywhere near £200m when they bought it from the receivers (and they've only put in £500,000 investment since buying it).
 
I really can't see Merlin buying PA. I mean if your saying that Camelot is a realistic purchace for £200 million, could you imagine what PortAventura would cost! It's just not going to happen, for that price anyway.

If your talking in the UK then Camelot is a realistic purchase, It's far enough from their other large parks to do good business. And i can't see Blackpool happening, I have no source but this is is roughly my understanding of a previously failed purchase, by Disney of all people. Upon Geoffrey Thompson's death the Thompson family attempted to sell the park for £20 million to Disney (with Disney to assume all of the Pleasure Beaches debt's in the process) However upon the reading of GT's will he stated that his wish was for the park to stay in the hands of the Thompson family and for his eldest daughter (Amanda) to take control, This of course is how we see it today. I don't know how much of this is true, but i am sure there are members of this site that can credit/discredit the above as they please.

As far as overseas goes, France is a realisitic possibility, Parc Asterix especially, A park that has huge potential and is located in a prime position on the outskirts of Paris.
 
If I saw PBB up for £20 million I'd get a loan and take it. Just the land value has to be worth that at the very least, never mind all the assets, the business, etc, etc, etc.

Their debts are now almost paid off after 6/7 years so they were never that massive. While Disney may not have taken it as it's not right for them, there would have been a queue all the way through Lancashire of companies looking to take it on for a paltry £20 million.
 
Yeah and I doubt if that's what's BPB was worth that Cumalot would be worth ten times that somehow...
 
It's an acquisition, which means takeover in business terms. This will be to take over a business/company/park/attraction be it a single location or an individual entity. I think the London Eye was around £70m to build, so I don't think we're going to see this money spent on something like that.
 
Could be buying a business and installing one though, it has many different means.

They could acquire land, a castle anything like that.
 
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