Candover Takes Over Parques Reunidos

Candover Investments plc, one of the numerous American-British and generally very “hungry” investment firms, has announced the signing of an agreement on the takeover of Parques Reunidos. The Madrid-based group Parques Reunidos is held as the third largest European operating group of amusement parks. It currently runs 22 separate parks (amusement parks, waterparks and zoos) in six countries (Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Norway and Argentina), and bought the Italian facility Mirabilandia (photo: MirabilandiaBeach) just late last year. For 2006, a pro forma turnover of 193.5 million euros has been announced for the Spanish operating group – at a total of 9.2 million visitors. The takeover by Candover was accompanied by the Royal Bank of Scotland, Merrill Lynch and PwC, among others. (eap)