Arctic-backed Living & Leisure receives $244m takeover bid

The board of LLA, which owns attractions such as the Melbourne Aquarium and the Hotham and Falls Creek ski resorts in Victoria, Australia, has accepted the offer of A$0.0514 per stapled security. This translates to a company valuation of 7.2x EBITDA.

Arctic, the private equity vehicle held by James Packer, currently controls 48.86% of LLA, while a Morgan Stanley hedge fund holds 19.75% and a Goldman Sachs vehicle 19.26%. The remaining 10% is in the hands of public shareholders.

If completed, the deal would increase Merlin's footprint in Asia, expanding upon the Sydney Aquarium and Madame Tussauds sites in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Bangkok which it already owns. It is also working on a Legoland theme park in Malaysia and a Madame Tussauds in Sydney.

Merlin has a long history of private equity ownership, dating back to January 1999 when Apax Partners and Chase Capital Partners completed a GBP57 million management buyout. In February 2004, Hermes Private Equity bought the firm in a secondary buyout worth GBP72.5 million. Just over a year later, in May 2005, The Blackstone Group acquired Merlin for GBP102.5 million in a tertiary buyout. Dubai International Capital became involved when Blackstone funded Merlin's acquisition of its portfolio company, Tussauds Group, in March 2007. More recently, CVC Capital Partners acquired a 28% stake in the company in June 2010.

LLA, meanwhile, was placed in a trading halt last weekend while it held discussions with a party - ostensibly Merlin - over a possible takeover of the business. The company has been advised on a sale by ANZ Capital Advisory and investment bank UBS.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Australasia
• Buyouts
• Consumer
• buyout
• Australia
• Europe
• Consumer
• Morgan Stanley
• Goldman Sachs
• The Blackstone Group
• CVC Capital Partners
• Apax Partners Hong Kong