March 23, 2005

Dubai fund buys Tussauds for £800m

By Dominic Walsh
TUSSAUDS GROUP, the owner of the London waxworks museum, will be sold for £800 million to an investment firm controlled by the Government of Dubai, The Times has learnt.

Charterhouse Capital Partners, the venture capital firm that has owned Tussauds since 1998, is poised to announce that it has agreed a sale to Dubai International Capital (DIC), an investment firm set up in October by the state-controlled Dubai Holding. The deal was led by Mohammed al-Gergawi, chairman of DIC.

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DIC is expected to continue the expansion of the company, which has developed waxworks museums around the world.

Tussauds also owns some of the UK’s best-known theme parks, including Chessington World of Adventures, Alton Towers and Thorpe Park. It owns Warwick Castle and part-owns the London Eye, the giant wheel overlooking the Thames.

Under Charterhouse it also acquired Heide-Park, in Soltau, North Germany, which has the world's largest wooden rollercoaster. However, the park has been hit by the faltering German economy.

Peter Phillipson, its chief executive, is also credited with changing the culture of Madame Tussauds itself. Where tourists once wandered around rooms full of roped-off waxworks of half-forgotten historical figures, these days visitors can pinch Kylie Minogue’s bottom or kick a football with David Beckham.

Charterhouse bought Tussauds from Pearson, the media group, in October 1998 for £352 million. It recapitalised it last year after a previous attempt to sell it foundered because offers fell short of the £900 million asking price.

The real-life Madame Tussaud inherited a waxworks collection in Paris in 1794, which she brought to Britain. After touring the country for 33 years, she set up a permanent museum in London’s Baker Street in 1835. It moved to its present site in Marylebone Road in 1884.

The acquisition of Tussauds is the first private equity deal for DIC, which recently bought a 2 per cent stake in DaimlerChrysler, the carmaker, for about $1 billion (£530 million). DIC is thought to have been advised on the deal by HSBC.

A source close to Dubai Holding said that DIC was set up to compete with the big international buyout firms. Dubai Holding is ultimately controlled by the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

Quelle: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8209-1537961,00.html