Paris: Walt Disney is planning to take full ownership of its Disneyland Paris subsidiary in a bid to turn around its flagging fortunes, the company said yesterday.
The announcement came as Euro Disney, which operates Disneyland Paris, said visitor numbers were up in the first quarter, despite the state of emergency that has been in place in France for over a year.
Initially, Walt Disney would increase its stake in the theme park to 85.7 percent by buying shares currently held by the billionaire Saudi prince Al-Walid ben Talal. After that it would launch a public offering to acquire the remainder of Euro Disney's shares, it said.
Walt Disney said the offer price of €2.0 ($2.13) per share was a 67-percent mark-up on Euro Disney's closing price on Thursday. It is nevertheless, a long way below the share price of 11 euros when Euro Disney went public in November 1989.
Meanwhile, Euro Disney said it is observing a pick-up in visitor numbers. Euro Disney, which operates its business year from October to September, said revenues were up five percent at €354m ($377m) in the three months to December.
