Who owns legoland ?  UNITED KINGDOM – The family of the Lego brand founder has completed its agreement with Merlin Entertainments, owner of the Legoland Parks brand, to purchase the company and place it under private ownership.

Merlin is some eight months away from completing its newest Legoland theme park in Goshen.

The family of Lego brand founder Kirk Christiansen already owned 29 percent of the company.

On June 28, Merlin Entertainment and the board of Motion Acquisition Limited (Bidco) had announced agreement on terms for Bidco to acquire all remaining shares and take the company private.

The deal was reported to be worth $6.1 billion.

In a legal filing dated October 31, Merlin announced “the High Court of Justice in England and Wales has today sanctioned the scheme pursuant to which the acquisition is being implemented.”

Further to the announcement made by Merlin Entertainments and Motion Acquisition Limited on November 4, Merlin announced that following an application by Merlin, the Financial Conduct Authority has cancelled the listing of Merlin Shares on the premium listing segment of the Official List and the London Stock Exchange has cancelled the trading of Merlin Shares on the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities, in each case with effect from 8 a.m. (London time) November 5, 2019.

The shift in ownership is not anticipated to have any significant impact on the completion of the Legoland New York project in Goshen.

Peppa Pig Gets Her Own Theme Park — Opening at Legoland Florida in 2022

This little piggy got her own theme park! Legoland Florida Resort in Winter Haven is set to debut the world’s first standalone Peppa Pig amusement park in 2022, Merlin Entertainments announced in a statement on Thursday.

The beloved four-year-old character from the British animated series will have an entire park dedicated to her, featuring rides, interactive attractions, play areas, and live shows. And, of course, there will be Peppa’s very favorite thing: muddy puddles.

The new park is part of a partnership between Merlin Entertainments, which operates Legoland, and Hasbro, which owns the Peppa Pig brand. It will be geared toward the same preschool market that the show attracts, creating a “playful place perfect for a first theme park experience,” the release states.

“Working with our partners at Hasbro, we are excited to be taking the next step in creating this fully immersive theme park, which will bring to life even more of the sights, sounds, and experiences that family audiences know and love so much from Peppa’s world,” Merlin Entertainments’ Mark Fisher said in a statement. “It’s guaranteed to be a truly memorable day out for families and something to really look forward to visiting.”

Simply called the Peppa Pig Theme Park, it will be its own separately ticketed park, apart from the other Legoland areas. Annual passes will be available for the singular park, but there will also be an option that includes Legoland Theme Park, Legoland Water Park, and other Merlin Entertainments attractions in the area.

Details on the actual rides are forthcoming this summer. Those looking to stay on top of news of the park’s opening can sign up for the newsletter here.

While this is the first standalone theme park dedicated to the little pig who loves to snort, there are Peppa Pig Land sections at Germany’s Heide Park and Italy’s Gardaland, as well as a Peppa Pig World at Paultons Park in the U.K.’s Romsey. There are also four Peppa Pig World of Play indoor attractions in Chicago, Illinois; Grapevine, Texas; Auburn Hills, Michigan; and Shanghai, China.

Legoland owner Merlin Entertainments has emerged from the rubble of failed IPO

In the preceding years it had acquired several key tourist attractions, including the Legoland theme parks, Madame Tussauds and the London Eye.

Indeed, on January 15, 2010, it bought the closed Cypress Gardens theme park in Winter Haven, Florida, with the intention of taking Legoland to the East coast of the US (it already has one in California).

It had performed strongly during the recession, and recorded strong 8pc annual growth and £230m of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda).

But just a month after the Florida purchase, it abandoned the IPO plans. The group – which was then backed by private equity firm Blackstone and Dubai International Capital – had fallen victim to a loss of appetite in the market.

Fund managers, which at the time were very cautious about debuts by private-equity backed companies, said that not enough equity was left on the table when debt levels were brought down to fit with the stock market.

“We have pumped £80bn into the stock markets already – but these were for companies where we already owned equity,” said Andy Brough, a fund manager at Schroders.

“In these private equity floatations, where is the upside for investors if all we are doing is re-financing the companies where the PIK notes are eating up everything in sight?”

But with a debt to Ebitda ratio of five times, Merlin was among the most under-geared companies in the leisure sector in February 2010.

After the aborted flotation, Blackstone sold 20pc of the company to the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, reducing Blackstone’s holding to 34pc. CVC acquired another 8pc from the Dubai investment fund, giving it 28pc in all. KIRKBI, a Danish family trust that owns Lego, also increased its stake, emerging as the largest shareholder, with 36pc.

CVC paid a price that valued Merlin at £2.25bn.

Rather than rest on its laurels, Merlin was on the lookout for acquisitions. An opportunity appeared in late 2010. It was announced that the group would buy about A$115m (£75.6m) worth of entertainment attractions located in Australia and New Zealand from Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Attractions. The sale, which was finalised in March, included Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife World, Oceanworld Manly, Sydney Tower and the Koala Gallery in Australia, in addition to Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World in New Zealand.

Merlin is also planning to open Legoland parks in Malaysia and Dubai in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

The building blocks of the next chapter in Merlin’s story appear to already be in place.

Above is information who owns legoland.  Hopefully, through the above content, you have a more detailed understanding of who owns legoland .Thank you for reading our post.