An American activist investor is attempting to put Merlin Entertainments in play after calling on the theme park operator behind the London Eye and Madame Tussauds to seek out a buyer to take the group private.
The FTSE 250 group, which was ejected from the FTSE 100 index 18 months ago, confirmed to the stock market yesterday that it had received the demand from Valueact Capital, a US-based activist known for its turnaround campaign at Rolls-Royce.
Valueact, which first declared a holding in Merlin in February last year, has built a 9.3% stake, second only to Kirkbi, the investment vehicle of the family that controls the Lego toy empire. Kirkbi has 29.6% of the Legoland operator.
