From orlandosentinel.com:
Weekend press reports out of Great Britain continue to name Parques Reunidos and Merlin Entertainments as prime bidders — and now add uncited chatter naming Walt Disney Parks and Resorts — to buy SeaWorld Orlando and all the other Orlando-based Busch Entertainment Corp. theme parks.
The Mail on Sunday, a British tabloid, brought up the Disney name yesterday, offering no details or sources to suggest that Disney would be a bidder to buy Busch Entertainment from Anheuser-Busch Cos., as the big St. Louis-based brewer sheds non-beer businesses to complete the merger with InBev, the Belgian/Brazilian brewer.
Meanwhile, The Sunday Times of London reported yesterday that a serious play is being prepared by the owner of Parques Reunidos, which owns dozens of European theme parks and attractions, including some marine parks that are similar in concept to SeaWorld, plus a few smaller attractions in the United States, including Wild Waters and Silver Springs near Ocala. The Times reported that companys financial backer has hired investment bankers including Morgan Stanley to discuss a possible $4.5 billion bid for Busch Entertainment.
Still, much of the chatter seems to center first on Merlin, which also is interesting far beyond SeaWorld, because Merlins financial partner is The Blackstone Group, which also has a 50-percent interest in Universal Orlando. That means the only object of speculation now which is not at least partially Orlando-based already would be the Spanish Parques Reunidos.
The potential purchase price of Busch Entertainment and its 10 parks probably precludes almost anyone else from bidding, unless there is a wildcard — an interested, big venture capital firm, analyst John Gerner, managing director of Leisure Business Advisors, recently told the Orlando Sentinel. Speculations about the price have ranged from $2.5 billion to $4.5 billion, though Gerner said he suspects the higher number was suggested by InBev of Anheuser-Busch.
“Id be surprised if Disney makes a serious bid for the Busch theme parks. I sense that InBevs bankers are floating that name, along with Dubai World, to heighten overall interest and hopefully start a bidding war. At this time, were aware of one serious bidder, and thats Parques Reunidos,” Gerner said.
The Mail on Sunday reported: “Merlin Entertainments, which owns Madame Tussauds, Alton Towers, and the London Eye, will have to compete with the biggest theme park business in the world - Disney” — in the bidding for SeaWorld. Thats it. There are no suggestions where that information came from, other than a quote from an unidentified banker.
