THE company behind Scarbor- ough's proposed new LEGOLAND Discovery Centre attraction has been revealed as having the fastest growing profits in the UK.
Merlin Entertainments topped the Sunday Times Deloitte Buyout Track 100 – Biggest 10 list which identifies the private equity-owned companies in the UK with profits of more than £50 million.
The company is the world’s second- biggest visitor att
raction group, boasting 52 attractions and six hotels in 12 countries and across three continents.
In the UK Merlin owns 20 attractions including five of the country’s biggest – The London Eye, Madame Tussauds, London, Alton Towers, LEGOLAND, Windsor, and Warwick Castle.
Other attractions include 10 Sea Life and Marine Sanctuary attractions, including the one at Scalby Mills, the Dungeons in London, York and Edin- burgh and Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures.
Last year visitor numbers at its attractions worldwide increased from 30 to 32 million and the group achieved double digit profit growth for the seventh year running.
In 2007 the firm completed a £1 billion acquisition of The Tussauds Group from Dubai International Capital, making it the world’s second largest visitor attraction operator.
Its other attractions includes four LEGOLAND sites bought for £258 million in 2005 and the Italian theme park Gardaland, acquired for £340 million in 2006.
Chief rxecutive Nick Varney said: “Merlin has prospered under PE ownership, particularly with Blackstone with whom my team and I have an excellent working relationship.
“They have provided not simply investment, but also the business and strategic support we needed to build a world leading leisure organisation of which we are both proud and which still has enormous potential for growth.
“I do not believe this could have been achieved in any other way.”
The full article contains 294 words and appears in Scarborough Evening News newspaper.
