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[Dream]

Sale expected soon on Busch theme parks

The Financial Times of London reported Thursday that bidders are lining up for the anticipated sale of $7 billion in assets that brewing giant InBev wants to unload as part of its $52 billion takeover of Anheuser-Busch.

Chief among those assets is Busch Entertainment, which operates 10 theme parks including Busch Gardens Europe and Water Country USA. The sale is expected to reap up to $4 billion.

The Times listed likely bidders as Merlin Entertainment and Candover, both based in the United Kingdom. Strategic bidders may include Walt Disney and Universal Studios. Even Six Flags, which owns 20 theme parks and was long been rumored as a suitor for at least some of the 1,200 acres owned by the Williamsburg Pottery, is expected to ask for the sales memorandum.

Merlin owns Madame Tussauds and Legoland. Candover is a buyout group that owns Madrid-based Parques Reunidos, which operates 50 parks in a dozen countries. No longer mentioned is Dubai World, for which Busch Entertainment is building four parks.

Possible strategic bidders include media group Walt Disney, the world's biggest operator of theme parks, and Universal Studios, which is majority-owned by the US television and film business, NBC Universal.

Six Flags, which owns 20 theme parks in the US, Mexico and Canada, is also expected to ask for the sales memorandum.

The Financial Times quoted a person "familiar with the planned sale" as saying the initiative would test loan markets to see whether private equity groups could raise enough debt to launch bids for the company. A private equity bid would likely need to borrow about $2 billion to fund the deal.

If no bidder is willing to pay what Anheuser-Busch InBev wants for Busch Entertainment, the company could spin off Busch Entertainment

[kraken]

Candover(más conocida entre nosotros como Parques Reunidos) y Merlin(Tussaud´s) entre ellos va a estar la compra de los parques. No se, PR ya compró el año pasado kenywood entertiment asi que podría ser que así se abriera más al público americano, ya que su oferta es mayoritariamente en suelo europeo. Merlin (Blackstone como anda metida en este grupo?¿) no se yo, pero con los parques que tiene tiene también muchas papelteeas. Ahora haber quien tiene esos millones para poder pagarlos. Si PR se lleva el gato al agua esperemos que hagan algo digno de estos parques, y no lo que nos tienen acostumbrados.

[arthur]

Busch Gardens seguirá siendo una referencia, de todos modos.