The Other Orlando Blog

I've never taken all the chatter about who'll buy Busch very seriously. For my money, it's all been guesswork based on nothing more than hunches.

But the recent news that Merlin plans an IPO does tend to make you sit up and take notice.

Merlin, whose holdings include Legoland theme parks, Madame Tussauds wax museums and the London Eye, is close to finalizing a plan for an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange, according to a report last weekend in The Independent of London.

The offering is expected to raise more than $3 billion, the newspaper reported. Merlin is owned by a private-equity giant, the Blackstone Group, which also holds a 50 percent stake in Universal Orlando.

The oft cited estimate for how much the Busch theme parks are work is between $3 and $4.5 billion.

Labels: anheuser busch seaworld orlando, inbev, merlin entertainments, universal orlando

I think this is good news.

Chatter surrounding the potential auction of Orlando-based Busch Entertainment has cooled off in recent weeks. For example, when Jeff Immelt, the chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric Co., the ultimate parent of Universal Orlando, was asked whether his company has considered purchasing Busch Entertainment, part of his response was, "My understanding is that's been slowed down a little bit."

Labels: anheuser busch seaworld orlando, inbev

"The Media" has been yammering for months about the sale of SeaWorld based on . . . well, based on nothing much.

Yeah, in mergers of the sort that recently happened between Anheuser-Busch and InBev various components of the new company tend to get sold off to pay for the debt taken on to finance the merger. And the sale of the theme parks seems a logical thing to happen, especially since InBev has hinted at -- repeat, hinted at -- doing just that.

But there's no solid evidence as yet. That why all the "SeaWorld to be sold!!!" stories you read are hedged with conditional words like "might" and "could."

Now comes something that might actually have some fact behind it.

"Are you worried the company might sell the park?" WFTV reporter Eric Rasmussen asked a SeaWorld employee.

"No, it's a good company," the employee said.

Other sources told Eyewitness News that SeaWorld managers met with employees on Wednesday, reassuring them the park would not be sold this year, in part because there were no buyers.

The emphasis is mine.

The same article notes that "profits for Anheuser-Busch InBev are flatter than day-old beer." But the theme parks, from what I've read are consistently profitable. Why unload one of the few profitable parts of your company in a down market?

Of course, for all I know, SeaWorld could be sold tomorrow, but I'm not betting on it.

Labels: anheuser busch seaworld orlando, inbev

A while back, I suggested that the demise of free beer at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens might spark a Bud boycott.

Well, it's come to pass. Welcome to the Belgweiser Rebellion.

Their main gripe seems to be that Bud is now Belgium-owned, which seems pretty silly to me. But there is some evidence that what really set them off was the end of free beer at SeaWorld.

"Shamu just isn't the same without a free beer!"

They continue:

We don't believe an important symbol of America like Budweiser should have been pirated out from under America by Belgian Brewers, who as far as we can tell from Google Maps, are almost French. Yaaaaaaah!

Symbol of America, huh? A beer named after a town in Bohemia, which is now part of the Czech Republic, which as far as I can tell from Google maps makes it almost Polish?

Whatever.

Labels: anheuser busch seaworld orlando, boycott, budweiser, inbev

Have those Belgians no heart?

Busch/InBev has announced that there will be no more free beer at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Africa, the St. Louis Business Journal is reporting.

The beer dispensing area at the SeaWorld Hospitality Center will be closed as of February 1 and converted into a restaurant; the Tampa equivalent will close as of the end of January and reopen with a "new menu".

Busch spokesman Fred Jacobs tried to make it sound like a logical move.

"The hospitality centers had pretty limited appeal because it was for patrons who were of legal drinking age who wanted beer," he said. "We were looking for something that had a broader age appeal."

Nice try, Fred. I guess the lack of broad appeal explains the long lines at the Hospitality Centers.

Bud boycott, anyone?

Labels: anheuser bush, Busch Gardens Africa, free beer, inbev, seaworld orlando

There is now speculation that any potential sale of the Busch theme parks has been back-burnered by the stalled economy.

“Clearly InBev is not a theme park operator,” Winston said. “So there will probably be some kind of play on their part for disposing of the theme park division, but it’s just a timing issue, and I think financing is the boogeyman right now.”

Frankly, I don't think anyone knows.

Labels: anheuser bush, inbev, seaworld orlando

The hits just keep on comin'!

I heard some scuttlebutt from SeaWorld employees that some parks in the portfolio, namely the SeaWorld in Texas and Busch Gardens Williamsburg, had already been sold, at least in principle.

I don't give much credence to that, if only because news that big would be hard to keep under anyone's hat, so we'd have heard about it by now.

Way back in July, Beth Kassab of the Orlando Sentinel did a good job of sorting through the "usual suspects," prime among them Merlin Entertainments of the UK and Parques Reunidos of Spain.

I'd like to propose a dark horse candidate: Nakheel, the developer that is partnering with Busch to recreate the Florida family of theme parks on an artificial, Shamu-shaped island off the coast of Dubai.

Buying Busch's theme parks might make sense for them or other moneyed interests in the United Arab Emirates. It would, after all, prevent another buyer from backing out of the Dubai deal.

But enough wild-eyed speculation. Kassab has this to say:

Don't count out the possibility that while InBev considers the theme parks to be secondary to its core brewery business that it eventually decides to hold onto them. Last year Busch Entertainment reported $1.2 billion in sales and $262 million in profit.

After all, it was once widely thought that NBC would shed the Universal parks, but now seems settled on holding on to them.

Good point and one that's too little mentioned as we all wait to see when the first shoe will drop.

Labels: busch entertainment, inbev, seaworld orlando

It's a done deal. InBev is buying Anheuser-Busch.

Lotsa questions now. Whither the theme parks? What about A-B's corporate philanthropy on behalf of conservation and animal rescue? My guess: Since in Europe the government does the lion's share of philanthropy and looking after the social welfare, Busch's commitment to the environment will seem quaint and expendable to the new owners.

And what about A-B's patriotic efforts to salute and support our troops? Will InBev see this as fat just waiting to be cut out of the budget? God, I hope not.

UPDATE: The new company will be called Anheuser Busch InBev, so the Busch name will survive.

Labels: anheuser busch seaworld orlando, inbev, philanthropy

There's a report that Warren Buffett, Anheuser-Busch's biggest shareholder, is looking kindly on the InBev offer for the company.

Warren Buffett, the world's richest man and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., plans to tell Anheuser-Busch Cos. chief August Busch IV that he supports Belgian brewer InBev's proposed $46.3 billion takeover offer of the Budweiser brewer, according to an article Belgian newspaper De Standard posted on its Web site Tuesday.

Could be just a rumor, but the "business logic" of the deal is looking more and more inevitable to me.

Of course, there's nothing to say that InBev would "sell the theme parks for parts," as a friend of mine put it, but that seems to be the pattern in this sort of deal.

Labels: anheuser bush, inbev