Merlin Entertainments

Overview

Merlin Entertainments Ltd is a global leader in location-based, family entertainment. As Europe’s largest and the world’s second-largest visitor attraction operator by attendance, Merlin now operates over 130 attractions, 20 hotels and 6 holiday villages with more than 4,000 rooms in 25 countries across 4 continents.

In June 2019, the company agreed to be acquired for USD 7.6 billion (GBP 6 billion) by Berkeley Bidco Ltd., a new company jointly owned by Kirkbi A/S and Blackstone Core Equity Partners. Following the acquisition, it was delisted from London Stock Exchange in November 2019. Under the new ownership, Kirkbi controls 50% of Merlin ownership, while Blackstone and Canadian pension fund CPPIB owns the remainder.

The majority of the company’s portfolio consists of over 110 indoor ‘Midway’ branded attractions, which are smaller scale and have a short length of stay compared to theme parks. Well-known examples include Madame Tussauds wax museums, LEGOLAND Discovery Centre attractions, SEA LIFE aquariums, The Dungeons interactive history exhibits, and the London Eye, Blackpool Tower Eye, and Sydney Tower Eye observation attractions.

In addition, Merlin owns and operates 10 LEGOLAND theme parks worldwide in 8 countries and 6 other individually branded resort theme parks. The LEGOLAND Park Operating Group constitutes 38% of Merlin revenues and received over 15.8 million guests (as of 2019). In recent years, Merlin has focused on China for the development of new LEGOLAND parks, with 4 new parks already announced and underway.

Over the years, Merlin has actively licensed leading IPs for its attractions, most notably the long-term, multi-product partnership with the LEGO Group. It also has local and global IP partnerships with DreamWorks (Comcast), BBC Studios (CBeebie), Bear Grylls, Marvel, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Most recently, Merlin entered a multi-territory partnership with Entertainment One (acquired by Hasbro) to license the Peppa Pig brand for location-based entertainment attractions including new second gate park in Orlando and upcoming LEGOLAND in Chengdu, China.