Private equity firm Blackstone Group is buying the owner of Madame Tussauds waxworks museum for about 1 billion pounds ($1.92 billion) cash, creating the second-biggest theme parks group behind Disney.
The deal, announced on Monday, would combine Tussauds, one of London’s biggest tourist attractions, Sea Life and the London Eye with Blackstone-owned Legoland and Gardaland theme parks, which are held in its Merlin Entertainments Group.
Dubai International Capital bought Tussauds in 2005, valuing it at about 800 million pounds. Dubai is retaining a 20% stake in the combined group.
The newly enlarged tourist attraction group plans expansion, particularly in North America.
“Our ambition is to build on this to become the world leader in location based, branded, family entertainment,” Merlin Chief Executive Nick Varney said.
The combined 50 attractions and four hotels drew about 30 million visitors last year.
ArabianBusiness.com reported earlier this year that Dubai International Capital (DIC), the emirate’s government-owned investment arm, was set to spend $75m opening Tussauds Group waxwork museums in Hollywood and Washington DC, in addition to existing operations in New York and Las Vegas.
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.
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.
Tussauds was sold by Pearson Plc, the world’s biggest educational publisher, in 1998 to Charterhouse Capital Partners for about 350 million pounds.
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