Merlin Entertainments Group

Merlin Entertainment PLC
legal form	Limited Company
ISIN	GB00BDZT6P94
founding	December 1998
Seat	Poole , England
management	Merlin Field ( Executive Chairman )
Number of employees	Worldwide 26,000 (2015) thereof in: Soltau 900 employees Günzburg 750 employees
sales	€ 1.789 billion  (2017)
Branch	Amusement parks
Website	www.merlinentertainments.biz

London Dungeon

The Merlin Entertainments Group is a UK operator of over 120 leisure facilities that are visited by around 66 million visitors annually. Merlin employs a total of 26,000 people in 23 countries.

history

In the early 1990s, the British company Vardon founded the subsidiary Vardon Attractions from the recently purchased leisure attractions London Dungeon , York Dungeon and Sea Life in Oban. In 1998, when Vardon returned to other business areas, the attractions were put up for sale. This resulted in a management buy-out for £ 47 million, supported by Apax Partners and the Bank of Scotland, in January 1999 , and the new group traded under the name Merlin Entertainments Group. A year later the dungeons in Hamburg and Edinburgh were opened. In 2004 there was a second buy-out, which was financed by private equity Hermes.

In May 2005, Merlin was acquired by the US Blackstone Group for £ 102 million . Blackstone expanded the group through the acquisitions of Legoland leisure parks (August 2005), Gardaland (October 2006, 550 million euros) and the Tussauds Group (March 2007, 1.5 billion euros), the latter of which had belonged to Heide since 2001 -Park Soltau . With this, Merlin grew within a few years to become the second largest operator of leisure attractions behind Disney (measured in terms of visitor numbers). When the Tussauds Group was acquired, 20% of Merlin went to Dubai International Capital , the previous owner of Tussauds.

In July 2007 Merlin sold parts of the former Tussauds group for £ 622 million to the investment company Prestbury to finance the purchase of Tussauds and secure the investment program. In return, Merlin leased the sold properties back for 35 years in order to continue to manage them.

A second Legoland Discovery Center opened in Duisburg in April 2008, and a third followed in August 2008 in Chicago. In 2008 The London Aquarium was acquired and opened as Sea-Life London . In 2009 in New Jersey , the Ferris wheel The Pepsi Globe observation wheel , a second Legoland Discovery Center in the US and Madame Tussauds in Hollywood opened. In 2015 the Merlin Entertainments Group operates a total of 19 Madame Tussauds , the London Eye , the Sydney Tower Eye , Images of Singapore , the Blackpool Tower , the Weymouth Tower, 9 dungeons , 11 Legoland Discovery Centers , 47 Sea Life aquariums, 6 Legoland parks , Gardaland , Alton Towers Resort , Thorpe Park , Chessington World of Adventures , Heide Park Resort and Warwick Castle .

In 2015 a complex opened in Orlando, Florida with the "Cola Cola Orlando Eye" (Ferris wheel), Madame Tussauds, a "Sea Life" aquarium and other attractions.

In June 2019, the Kirkbi Foundation, the main shareholder of Lego, with the support of the US investment fund Blackstone and the Canadian pension fund CPPIB, submitted a takeover offer equivalent to 5.6 billion euros for Merlin Entertainments.

group

Entrance to Legoland Germany

• 1 Earth Explorer in Ostend
• 5 other theme parks: Alton Towers , Thorpe Park , Heide Park Resort , Gardaland and Chessington World of Adventures
• 11 hotels and camps belonging to the various theme parks: Adventure Hotel (Heide-Park Soltau), Alton Towers Hotel, Splash Landings Hotel (Alton Towers), Gardaland Hotel Resort (Gardaland), Legoland Feriendorf (Legoland Germany), Holiday-Camp ( Heide-Park Soltau), Hotel Legoland (Legoland Billund), Alton Towers Conference Center
• 11 Legoland Discovery Centers in Atlanta , Berlin , Boston , Chicago , Dallas , Kansas City , Manchester , Oberhausen , Tokyo , Toronto and Westchester
• 8 Legoland parks in Billund , Carlsbad , Günzburg , Nusajaya (Malaysia), Windsor , Winter Haven , Nagoya and Jabal Ali .
• 19 Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam , Bangkok , Berlin , Blackpool , Hollywood , Hong Kong , Las Vegas , London , New York City , Beijing , San Francisco , Shanghai , Singapore , Sydney , Tokyo , Washington, DC , Wuhan , Orlando and Vienna
• 47 Sea Life Center in London ( The London Aquarium ), Brighton, Chessington, Weymouth, Yarmouth, Birmingham, Blackpool, Scarborough, Loch Lomond, Manchester, Bray, Helsinki, Billund (in Legoland Billund), Timmendorfer Strand, Hanover, Berlin, Königswinter , Oberhausen , Speyer, Munich, Konstanz, Günzburg (in Legoland Germany), Blankenberge, Scheveningen, Castelnuovo del Garda (in Gardaland Resort), Jesolo, Porto, Benalmadena, Paris, Istanbul, Arizona, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Dallas / Fort Worth, Kansas City, Charlotte Concorde, Michigan, Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Auckland (New Zealand), Busan (South Korea), Bangkok and Shanghai.
• 3 Sea Life Sanctuaries ( seal rearing stations with shows) in Gweek , Hunstanton and Oban
• 9 The Dungeon in Amsterdam , Berlin, Blackpool, Edinburgh, Hamburg , London , San Francisco, York and Warwick
• 4 The Eye: Blackpool Tower Eye , London Eye , Sydney Tower Eye and Orlando Eye .
• Warwick Castle in the English county of Warwickshire
• Weymouth Tower
• Images of Singapore
• 2 ski resorts in Mount Hotham , Falls Creek (Australia)
• 2 Fly Treetop Adventures in Otway, Illawarra (Australia)
• 2 Wild Life Centers in Hamilton Island and Sydney

New openings in 2015

• Hotel in Legoland Florida
• Legoland Discovery Center in Osaka, Japan and Istanbul
• Madame Tussauds in Orlando, USA
• Sea Life in Orlando and Michigan, USA
• The Eye in Orlando, USA
• Shrek's Adventure in London

criticism

The Merlin Entertainments Group and other operators were criticized in 2013 for paying low hourly wages.

Web links

• Website of the Merlin Entertainments Group

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sales from 2015 to 2017. , on: 4-traders.com , March 1, 2018, accessed April 5, 2018
2. ↑ https://www.merlinentertainments.biz/835F4746-8AC0-4F9E-B858-8115733202D4.CFILE
3. ↑ Global Attractions Attendance Report 2017 (PDF), on teaconnect.org, accessed on July 15, 2018
4. ↑ ^{a b} Tussauds firm bought in £ 1bn deal. BBC News, March 5, 2007, accessed June 23, 2007 . 
5. ↑ Mark Oakley: The London Dungeon. (No longer available online.) In: hauntedattraction.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007 ; Retrieved June 23, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ History. (No longer available online.) Merlin Entertainments, archived from the original on June 13, 2007 ; Retrieved June 23, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Factsheet 2007. (No longer available online.) Merlin Entertainments, archived from the original on October 7, 2007 ; Retrieved June 23, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Introduction (as of 2012). (No longer available online.) In: Company presentation. Merlin Entertainments, 2012, archived from the original on September 11, 2012 ; Retrieved September 10, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ Taylor Wessing advises on £ 622m sale and leaseback for Prestbury. (No longer available online.) Taylor Wessing LLP, July 23, 2007, archived from the original on September 28, 2007 ; Retrieved July 30, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ London Aquarium sold to London Eye owner. In: Telegraph. May 3, 2008, accessed July 20, 2008 . 
11. ↑ Lego owner buys sights. Retrieved June 28, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Low wages in amusement parks outraged employees and unions. Spiegel ONLINE, January 3, 2013, accessed May 1, 2019 . 

Coordinates: 50 ° 42'55.1 "  N , 1 ° 59'13.4"  W.