Private equity firm MidOcean Partners has agreed to sell Palace Entertainment, the largest owner and operator of water parks and family entertainment centres in the US, to Parques Reunidos
Private equity firm MidOcean Partners has agreed to sell Palace Entertainment, the largest owner and operator of water parks and family entertainment centres in the US, to Parques Reunidos, one of Europe’s leading operators of attraction parks, in a transaction valued at around USD330m plus cash and less net debt as of July 31.
MidOcean acquired Palace Entertainment, which has 33 parks and more than 10 million visitors annually, in 2006. The group has water parks in North Carolina, California, New York, Florida, New Hampshire and New Jersey, as well as family entertainment centres in five states.
‘We are pleased with the progress that we have made at Palace Entertainment during our ownership,’ says MidOcean managing director Tyler Zachem. ‘With our prior experience investing in the leisure sector, we were able to bring significant management resources to Palace and have grown the business both organically and through acquisition. We have built Palace into a great platform that will facilitate Parques Reunidos’s entry into the US leisure market.’
Palace Entertainment chief executive Al Weber says: ‘Palace Entertainment has benefited from a strong partnership with the MidOcean team. We believe Palace is well positioned to continue as a leader in the US leisure park industry and is well positioned to become an important asset in Parques Reunidos’s portfolio.
‘We are looking forward to working with Richard Golding and the Parques Reunidos team to leverage their international expertise as we continue to provide guests with a high-quality and value-oriented place to escape, have fun, and create memories together.’
Parques Reunidos operates 28 separate parks, including amusement parks, animal parks, and water parks, in eight countries, and its amusement parks attract 12 million visitors annually. Its holdings include the flagship Parque de Atracciones and the Zoo Aquarium in Madrid, where the company has its headquarters.
‘Palace Entertainment operates many well known and highly-attended water parks and family entertainment centres, and we are pleased to enter the US market with this acquisition,’ says Parques Reunidos chief executive Golding.
‘The acquisition of Palace Entertainment represents a major step in Parques Reunidos’s strategy of becoming a leading player in the global leisure parks market, and the combined group will provide an even stronger platform for continued growth. We look forward to working with the Palace team to continue to develop these family-friendly attractions and market them to an even broader group of visitors.’
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to regulatory approval. The Royal Bank of Scotland provided committed financing for the transaction, while Morrison Cohen was legal counsel to MidOcean Partners and Clifford Chance was legal counsel to Parques Reunidos.
MidOcean Partners is a private equity firm with offices in New York and London, focused on investing in middle market companies with stable market positions and opportunities for growth in the US and Europe. Targeted sectors include consumer and leisure, media and communications, business and financial services and industrials. Parques Reunidos, the second largest European operator of leisure parks and the seventh largest in the world, is majority owned by European buyout firm Candover.
