Industry | Amusement parks and attractions |
---|---|
Headquarters | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
A$101.1 million (2009) | |
Profit | A$42.7 million (2009) |
Total assets | A$239 million (2009) |
Parent | Village Roadshow |
Website | Official website |
Village Roadshow Theme Parks is a division of Village Roadshow Limited which operates theme parks and attractions in Australia and the United States of America. The Sydney Attractions Group Pty Ltd was formerly part of Village Roadshow Theme Parks; however, it was sold in 2011 to Merlin Entertainments.
In 1989, the publicly listed Sea World Property Trust who owned its namesake theme park coordinated a three-way venture to acquire Wet'n'Wild Water World from the Herringe Group of Companies and build the adjacent Warner Bros. Movie World theme park. The two other companies involved in the venture were American multinational media corporation AOL Time Warner and fellow publicly listed Australian firm Village Roadshow Limited. The joint venture known as Warner Village Theme Parks was led by Chief Executive Officer John Menzies. Prior to the formation of the company, Menzies was Managing Director of Sea World.
In 1992, Pivot Leisure sold its two-third stake of the Sea World Property Trust to AOL Time Warner and Village Roadshow Limited. In April 2001, AOL Time Warner and Village Roadshow Limited announced plans to acquire the remaining 31.6% of Sea World Property Trust that they did not already own. This would also mean the ownership of Warner Village Theme Parks would lie entirely with the two firms. However, the takeover bid failed as the two firms were only able to acquire 85.65% of the trust, just shy of the 90% required for compulsory acquisition. A second takeover bid of Sea World Property Trust was put forward in December 2001. This bid was ultimately successful, with compulsory acquisition beginning in February 2002, and the delisting of the Sea World Property Trust from the Australian Securities Exchange in April 2002.