The owner of Legoland and Madame Tussauds waxworks is poised to buy some of the best-known visitor attractions in the US including SeaWorld and the Busch Gardens.
Blackstone, the private equity house, is this weekend finalising a deal to buy Busch Entertainment Corp, one of the largest amusement park operators in the US.
The buyout firm is buying the assets from Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Belgian-US brewing giant that is selling assets to help pay for its $52bn (£32.6bn) merger last year.
Valued at between $2.5bn and $3bn, the Busch Entertainment takeover will add 10 US theme parks to Blackstone’s entertainment empire.
It owns Merlin Entertainment Group, which alongside Madame Tussauds also controls Alton Towers and Chessington World of Adventures and the UK holiday village operator Center Parcs.
The Sunday Times, business, p2
