Dubai company to buy Tussauds for $1.5 bn
Agence France-Presse
Dubai, March 23, 2005
A Dubai investment company said on Wednesday it would acquire Tussauds Group, which runs Madame Tussauds wax museum and the London Eye among other sites, from London-based Charterhouse Capital Partners for 800 million pounds ($1.5 billion).
Dubai International Capital "has agreed to acquire the Tussauds Group, the largest operator of visitor attractions in Europe, which is currently controlled by funds advised by Charterhouse Capital Partners LLP," it said in a statement.
Tussauds counts more than 14 million guests per year at its attractions in London, New York, Las Vegas, Amsterdam and Hong Kong, the statement said.
Since its acquisition by Charterhouse in 1998, Tussauds has opened new city center sites in New York, Las Vegas and Hong Kong and acquired Heide Park, a leading theme park in northern Germany.
It has also opened Splash Landings, an indoor waterpark hotel based at Alton Towers in Britain.
The deal is the second major transaction by Dubai International Capital this year, following a one-billion-dollar investment in DaimlerChrysler. The company announced the investment in late January, saying it made it the third largest shareholder in the German-US auto giant.
HT Media Ltd. 2004.