Parques Reunidos Lands Big Deal in US

As was only just announced, the Spanish group Parques Reunidos took over Palace Entertainment as of 31 July 2007, a leading operator of waterparks and family entertainment centres in the US. The price tag: 330 million USD. Palace Entertainment runs 33 parks that attract a total of ten million visitors annually. The waterparks taken over by Parques Reunidos include “Wet ‘n Wild” in Greensboro, NC; “Raging Waters” in San Dimas, San Jose and Sacramento, CA; “Splish Splash” in Riverhead, NY; “Big Kahuna’s” in Destin, FL. Also acquired in the deal were the “Boomers,” “Castle Park,” “Silver Springs,” “Malibu Grand Prix,” “Mountasia” and “Speedzone” family entertainment centres in various US states. Parques Reunidos, which recently became the second largest operator of leisure facilities in Europe thanks to a range of new acquisitions (including Mirabilandia and Bobbejaanland), already owns 28 separate park facilities (amusement parks, waterparks and zoos) in eight different countries, attracting an annual total of around 12 million visitors. The majority of shares in Parques Reunidos is held by Candover, a leading European private equity corporation. (eap)