E-mail Article
Printer Friendly
Share Article
DIC set to wax lyrical in Dubai
Dubai International Capital (DIC), the emirate’s government-owned investment arm, is to spend $75m opening Tussauds Group waxwork museums in Hollywood and Washington DC, in addition to existing operations in New York and Las Vegas.
Tussauds Group – which was acquired by Dubai International Capital (DIC) for £800m ($1.56bn at today’s exchange rates) in March 2005 – also plans to open museums in Dubai and Mumbai, according to yesterday’s Sunday Times newspaper.
Last week, wax statues of David and Victoria Beckham were flown from London to New York to celebrate the football star’s multi-million dollar transfer to Los Angeles Galaxy.
New waxwork museums in the US, Dubai and Mumbai would complement the group’s operations in Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, and Amsterdam. Tussauds also owns UK attractions such as Chessington World of Adventures and Alton Towers theme parks, and the London Eye wheel.
According to the Sunday Times, the Washington attraction is scheduled to open this autumn on the site of Woody’s, an old department store. A Hollywood branch will follow next year, built on a brownfield site next to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a Los Angeles landmark, and is the first overseas Tussauds to be built from scratch.
It is estimated that 4m people visit Madame Tussauds waxwork museums every year. The group recently filed results for the 10 months to December 2005, which showed operating profits of £40.7m on turnover of £158.4m, according to reports.
In separate news, it was reported that DIC is to spend around $500m buying a firm to boost the development of its Doncasters Group engineering outfit.
Sameer Al Ansari, DIC's Executive Chairman, speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, said the purchase would be a bolt-on acquisition to support Doncasters, according to Bloomberg. The $1.2bn deal to buy Doncasters was completed last year.
Quick Links(Residental)
Filter by address:
No Comments