USA/Japan: Comcast NBCUniversal Plans Complete Acquisition of Universal Studios Japan

Yesterday, Comcast NBCUniversal announced its plans to completely overtake Universal Studios Japan (USJ) located in the city of Osaka – the transaction is scheduled to close before the end of April this year.

The acquisition includes the purchase of the remaining 49 percent stake in USJ currently held by investors such as Goldman Sachs, Asian private-equity firm MBK Partners and US hedge fund Owl Creek Asset Management. The price of the transaction amounts to 254.8 billion Japanese Yen (approx. 2.3 billion US Dollar or 2.2 billion Euro). With this acquisition, The Comcast NBCUniversal group, which Universal Parks & Resorts belongs to, seeks to strengthen its position in the Asian market.

Future investments such as the introduction of beloved DreamWorks characters in Universal theme parks will support the company’s international growth (c.f. EAP news from October 24^th, 2016). In due time for the Olympic Summer Games 2020 in Tokyo, USJ will open its new “Super Nintendo World” theme area (c.f. EAP news from December 8^th, 2016). Furthermore, Comcast NBCUniversal is currently building the Universal Studios Beijing in China’s capital (with an opening scheduled for 2020) and it licenses the Universal Studios Singapore theme park. (eap)