April 26, 2019 — Today, Parques Reunidos announced that it has received an offer by Piolin Bidco, S.A.U. to purchase 100% of the company’s stock for approximately US$703 million. Piolin is the Spanish name for the Looney Tunes character Tweety Bird, who currently appears under license from Warner Bros at Parque Warner Madrid, one of Parques Reunidos’ parks.
According to filings with Spanish securities regulators, Parques Reunidos’ two largest current shareholders, Corporación Financiera Alba S.A and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), are participating as minority shareholders in the Piolin joint venture, owning 26.03% and 26.96% of Piolin respectively. Alba and GBL currently are represented on the Parques Reunidos Board of Directors, with two seats each. The remaining 50.01% of the Piolin partnership is owned by EQT Infra IV, a fund managed by Swedish investment firm EQT Fund Management S.à r.l.
Parques Reunidos owns or manages under contract more than sixty theme parks, zoos, and attractions in Europe, Dubai, Australia and the United States. Recent openings include the Atlantis Aquarium and Nickelodeon Adventure LBE center in Madrid, and the Ducati World themed land at Italy’s Mirabilandia theme park. In the United States, Steelers Country (pictured above) at Pittsburgh’s Kennywood Park, with its Steel Curtain roller coaster, and the Cartoon Network Hotel, located next to the Dutch Wonderland theme park in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, are scheduled to open later this year.