• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Merlin Entertainments: General Discussion

I think Kirkbi is as good move here. Merlin were in danger of damaging their core Lego brand, when they should have been generating excitement for the whole concept.

I could see a quick sell off of a few oddities like Bear Grylls and the treetop zipwire places (Illawarra Fly etc.) to tighten the focus; maybe Shrek's Adventure converting to Legoland Discovery or Little Big?
Sea Life seems a strong enough brand in its own right.

I'm hoping the theme parks will see a renewed focus on providing quality family experiences, and an end to Merlins obsession with dark themes. A little more lego, e.g. characters hanging around, the odd lego themed ride, would be OK at parks like Alton Towers... trickier at Chessington or Thorpe, when you have Legoland on the doorstep!

What I'm not looking forward to is the conversion of Madam Tussauds to lego figures and the dungeons to Lego Monsters characters. ;-)
 
Perhaps the reason for this is Kirkbi not feeling confident in their existing investment i. merlin? Buy the brand they can control the direction it goes in.

I do feel there will be a split between midway and rtp though as a result of this
 
djtruefitt said:
In a bizarre turn of events Nick Varney and some Merlin lot have visited Rulantia today.

f2fd5c8547a0e7429afb3d38856f80ea.jpg
Click to expand...
Now it makes sense... Nicky boy and the team searching for future employment prospects with a proper park? ;)
 
I think he's basically trying to say that terrorism, the alignment of the stars with the earth and fake news were to blame for the company being 'undervalued'.

Apparently it had nothing to do with the inept way they've run the business over the past 10 years...
 
The Times said:
City failed to value us, says Merlin theme park boss Sir John Sunderland

Alton Towers chairman lashes out after £4.8bn deal

The chairman of Merlin Entertainments blamed the markets and “uninformed sell-side analyst notes” for undervaluing the world’s second-biggest theme parks operator, after it accepted a £4.8bn bid from a consortium led by the Danish billionaire owners of Lego.

Sir John Sunderland, 73, chairman of the leisure group behind Alton Towers and the London Eye since 2009, said: “Any news flow, either from the company or because of factors like the terrorism incidents in London — or indeed some fairly uninformed sell-side analyst notes — can all have quite a volatile effect on the share price, which is disproportionate for the underlying value of our company.

“That’s been our frustration, both for the long-term shareholders and for the management of the business.”

Sunderland’s complaint came as Merlin recommended a 455p-a-share offer from a group led by its biggest shareholder, Lego owner Kirkbi, and including private equity giant Blackstone and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Kirkbi and Blackstone jointly controlled Merlin for eight years before it listed in London in 2013.

The offer, worth £6bn including debt, is a 15% premium to Thursday’s closing price and 37% above the share price last month when New York activist ValueAct penned an open letter to the board urging it to take the group private. Sunderland told The Sunday Times that ValueAct, which has a 9.3% stake and is supporting the deal, had not influenced the board’s decision. Merlin had knocked back three earlier offers of 425p, 435p and 450p from the consortium.

Shares in Merlin have been volatile since it floated at 315p in 2013. They rose to a high of 537p in June 2017, but have since drifted down after a series of broker downgrades. They closed on Friday at 449p, valuing the company at £4.6bn.

Merlin attractions, such as Madam Tussauds and the London Dungeon, took a hit after the terror attacks in London in 2017, and the company has also struggled to move on from a rollercoaster crash in 2015 in which two girls each lost a leg.

Nick Varney, who has been chief executive since he led a £47m buyout in 1999, has grown the company through a series of bold acquisitions and expansion overseas. Merlin attracted 67m visitors last year, generating close to £1.7bn in sales and pre-tax profits of £285m. However, Varney, 56, has complained privately about the short-term nature of markets.

Despite welcoming the deal, shareholders echoed Merlin’s complaints. Richard Buxton at Merian Global Investors, which owns 1.4% of Merlin, said the “current, frustratingly short-term nature of markets means the share price has never reflected the future opportunity for the business. After 18 months of stasis, we reluctantly accept that going private is the correct approach at this time.”
Click to expand...
 
Sounding like the narsasists prayer there, blaming others for mErLiNs failings....

A Narcissist's Prayer

That didn't happen.

And if it did, it wasn't that bad.

And if it was, that's not a big deal.

And if it is, that's not my fault.

And if it was, I didn't mean it.

And if I did...

You deserved it.

[/QUOTE
Click to expand...
 
Sunderland and many of the shareholders are probably right to complain about the short term volitility of the markets undervaluing the company, but that's exactly the very reason why Merlin should go private at this time and why it wasn't ready to be floated in the first place.

Merlin itself, time and time again, has bowed down to short term market pressures like so many companies before it. You can say what you want about Varney and the board, but you'd have to be extremely brave to not react to market volitility with such a young company, especially post Smiler (I refuse to accept the terrorism excuses, I think their impact is over exaggerated).

I think the company being taken private is the right decision. I agree with Valueact, the company was not mature enough to be floated and is exposed to market forces pounding in from so many directions. The industry in which Merlin operates in is capital expenditure heavy to reap long term rewards. It has to invest heavily just to stay still, let alone grow. Merlin is a company far too young to prove to the city that it has a long track record making decent long term investments. Look at Wickerman as an example of that, it saw its budget cut, it's planned opening year was put back and the company had to discount entry to Towers very heavily to fill the place up just so they could turn around to the market and say "see, see, we invested and people are coming!". It's also why we have so much accommodation being built, the board are desperate to appease the markets.

As for who the buyers are, I think overall this should (in theory), be a very good thing for Merlin and all their attractions for a number of reasons:

1. Let's face it, from the shambles at LLW this season, to the state of Heide Park, to the 4pm closures at Towers, how could things have got any worse anyway?

2. Kirkbi investments are already a massive shareholder in the business and know it very well. If they are willing to get into bed with other investors and put their hands in their pockets to increase their stake to half of the business, says to me they have some plans.

3. Say what you want about Blackstone and their many forays into theme parks, but they do have a history of pumping the money in, even if they do look for the quickest exit possible.

4. If a Canadian pension fund wants to pump money into your business, they want sustainable long term growth and would not invest if they didn't see that as being a highly likely outcome. That's the nature of pension fund investments.

5. It's quite common for companies being taken private to strip the assets out and flog on. But I can't see that being the case with who the investors are. My gut feeling is they're going pump investment in then refloat in the future.

6. They way they're taking about the deal. There's loads of talk of the need for investment for long term growth prospects and that they have no intention of splitting the group up. That could all be porkies of course, but I don't have the feeling it is.

Merlin and it's attractions will be better off by far in the hands of the private investors than in the unsustainable state it's currently in. I feel that common sense has finally provailved.
 
Tom said:
Didn't realise he was that short.
Click to expand...

Short of stature, short of ideas.

It's been the same nonsense lines trotted out since around the start of this decade, I'm sure they even started to believe it themselves. The market responded badly to their business because their business was bad.
 
They're right abut terrorism and "London problems", nobody in their right mind visits London now it's such a shithole and the media won't let you forget how many kids get knifed a day either, so it's no suprise if their visitor numbers are down.

I wouldn't visit a central London attraction even if they paid me.
 
IanSR said:
They're right abut terrorism and "London problems", nobody in their right mind visits London now it's such a ****hole and the media won't let you forget how many kids get knifed a day either, so it's no suprise if their visitor numbers are down.

I wouldn't visit a central London attraction even if they paid me.
Click to expand...

Are you a parody account?
 
D4n said:
Are you a parody account?
Click to expand...

No but obviously you haven't been to London recently either if you think it's some glowing unicorn filled utopia.

...and as for the other deleted comments, Mr Muscle Man hit the nail on the head, kind of ironic given the comments were deleted.
 
Now now, let's not turn to personal/political attacks on fellow members in this thread please. The offending post has been removed.

Thanks.
 
Rob said:
Now now, let's not turn to personal/political attacks on fellow members in this thread please. The offending post has been removed.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I'm glad the offending post was along with mine. Just wanted to make a point that discussion on here should not be shut down and people should not be put into groups.

I think IanSR has good points. I live below London and more and more of my friends avoid London. I noticed on my last Comic Con trip to London how different it was compared to 2 years ago.

I also tell visitors to London to try the cable cars over going on the London eye. The views I believe are far better and good value.
 
Rob said:
Now now, let's not turn to personal/political attacks on fellow members in this thread please. The offending post has been removed.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Thanks but let's not forget it wasn't either Mr Muscle or I who started throwing the insults around, just for context of those that weren't lucky enough to see thing prior to the post culling.

SuperMuscleMan said:
I think IanSR has good points. I live below London and more and more of my friends avoid London. I noticed on my last Comic Con trip to London how different it was compared to 2 years ago.

I also tell visitors to London to try the cable cars over going on the London eye. The views I believe are far better and good value.
Click to expand...

It's amazing value for money, I think last time I went it was £6 or something like that.
 
London is like every other major city in the world, has nice parts, dire parts and tourist parts...

I get why people don't like London, it's a marmite city and as the capital gets a lot of attention... But every major city is exactly the same, plenty of stabbings and incidents in Leeds...

But if you're not going into the centre (most of the incidents occur in the suburbs) because of them then it's a peculiar decision, much like those who don't go due to the threat of terrorism which has been proven to occur anywhere in the world...

Wouldn't surprise me if saturation of the market has caused the Midways to fall down... Plenty of them across the country, and due to brand obsession once you've done one you really don't need to do another...

The vigorous expansion is also their downfall...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top