DORSET'S Merlin Entertainments, the company behind Weymouth Sea Life Park and The National Seal Sanctuary, has been sold for £102.5 million.

It has been acquired by US investment giant Blackstone Capital Partners from Hermes Private Equity.

Poole-based Merlin is one of Europe's leading operators of branded visitor attractions with its Sea Life, Dungeons, Seal Sanctuary and Earth Explorer brands.

The company operates 28 attractions in eight European countries and welcomed more than six million visitors in the year ended February 2005.

Merlin enjoyed one of its most successful years to date in 2004 with visitors up by more than a million, revenue up 26 per cent to £44.9 million and EBITDA up by 37 per cent to £14.5 million.

Chief executive Nick Varney said: "Merlin has experienced five years of consistent profit growth, underlining our expertise in developing and managing branded attractions across borders.

"We would like to take this oppor-tunity to thank Hermes Private Equity for its support over the last 15 months, and to say how pleased we are to be working with Blackstone, an international leader in the private equity market, in the future."

Blackstone senior managing director Joseph Baratta said his group would back Merlin in the further roll-out of its brands across Europe.

"We believe that the European attractions and theme-park sector will enter a period of consolidation in the medium term and that Merlin is an excellent base from which to pursue follow-on acquisition opportunities."

And he added: "We also believe we have partnered with one of the best management teams in the sector led by CEO Nick Varney. Merlin has a clear growth strategy for the future."

Blackstone, a private investment and advisory firm with offices in New York, London, Atlanta, Boston and Hamburg, was founded in 1985.

The firm has raised a total of approximately $32 billion for alternative asset investing since its formation.

Over $14 billion of that has been for private equity investing.

First published: May 24