Product type
Regional ride parks, children’s/specialty parks
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In June 2019, the company agreed to be acquired for USD 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.
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Regional ride parks, children’s/specialty parks
Worldwide, across 4 continents
USD 400 million to 500+ million
Existing Theme Parks
Licensed Theme Parks
Pipeline Projects
Billund, Denmark
1968
DKK 429
Windsor, UK
1996
GBP 58
San Diego, California, USA
1999
USD 111
Günzburg, Germany
2002
EUR 54
Winter Haven, Florida, USA
2011
USD 110
Nusajaya, Johor, Malaysia
2012
MYR 199
Dubai, UAE
2016
AED 330
Nagoya, Japan
2017
JPY 7,100
Warwick, UK
GBP 37
Alton, UK
1980
GBP 65
Castelnuovo del Garda, Italy
1975
EUR 48
Soltau, Germany
1978
EUR 54
Chertsey, UK
1979
GBP 59
Chessington, UK
1987
GBP 57
Goshen, New York, USA
2021
USD 90
Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea
2022
KRW 60,000
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