PortAventura
Spain
 Park News - (2/13/2024) An unfortunate incident took place at PortAventura on Sunday as a burst of high wind blew a tree over onto the park’s Tomahawk family wooden coaster while it was in operation. Branches from the tree were said to have struck guests who were on the coaster at the time, with 14 riders reported to have suffered injuries, two listed as serious, and three more also sent to the hospital with less serious injuries.
(12/10/2023) According to a video report from Coaster Dad, Universal has filed for a roller coaster related patent in Spain for some reason. While this may simply be Universal covering some kind of bases to protect and back-up an existing patent they have elsewhere, the bigger line of thought goes back to the idea that Universal may be seeking to purchase the PortAventura resort once again, taking advantage of getting full ownership of it this time.
(9/17/2023) According to a few news articles from Spain, the two investment companies behind the PortAventura theme park resort (KKR and Investindustrial) are now looking to sell off the popular attraction. According to the article the sale of the PortAventura resort could generate a price around 1 billion Euros. PortAventura has had a long history of shared ownership, starting off as a shared attraction between the Tussauds Group (40.01%), La Caixa (33.19%) and Anheuser-Busch (19.9%) and FECSA (6.7%) when it first opened in 1995. In 1998 the Tussauds group sold their shares to Universal, and the attraction was rebranded for a time as Universal’s Port Aventura, and adopted Woody Woodpecker as the official mascot.
Over the years the park’s group ownership has essentially be a non-stop revolving door of owners, with Anheuser-Busch and Universal having dropped out long ago. Through a series of mergers and buy-outs it sounds like the park has narrowed the ownership down to just two investment companies: Investindustrial (50.1%) and KKR (49.9%), both of which appear to be in agreement that the time is right to sell the attraction now that it is turning a profit and expected to end the 2023 season with higher attendance than it had in 2019 (5.2 million). To these efforts the groups are already working with JP Morgan to work out the details of a possible sale.
So the real question is who might be interested in the opportunity to buy the entire property once and for all? The site itself is home to several hotels, a waterpark, the PortAventura theme park as well as a second gate micro-park experience, Ferrari Land. Disney had their chance once with this property, as the site was actually in the running in the 90’s to become home to “EuroDisney” before the Paris location won out.
Universal comes to mind as a possible bidder, as they once had parietal ownership and managed the park for many years under the eyes of a previous owner of Universal. Comcast is calling the shots these days, and they’ve been very gung-ho with investing in the Universal parks brand, having finalized buyout to completely own the Universal park in Japan, build a brand new park in China, and are currently building a 3rd major theme park in Florida. Being able to take advantage of the option for a 100% buyout of PortAventura for complete control of the resort, and the bragging rights for being able to plant the Universal flag firmly in Europe once and for all may be a temptation Comcast just won't be able to resist.
Keep in mind that cash may not be an issue for Comcast either, as Comcast still owns 33% of HULU and under the 2019 agreement where Disney absorbed FOX’s 33% to mix with their own 33% ownership, Comcast was said to be able to trigger a buyout offer from Disney as early as January 2024 for a minimum of $27.5 billion. However a press release from Comcast on Sept. 6th mentions that Comcast and Disney have agreed to moved up the date for the HULU deal to Sept. 30th, and that they expect to settle for more than the minimum price as the value of HULU has “increased dramatically” since that 2019 agreement was drafted. So with Comcast soon to be flush with cash, the chance to add PortAventura to their attractions portfolio is something of a no-brainer in my opinion.
2024 - Nothing is known at this time...
???? - LaLiga Theme Park - Delayed/Status Unknown - (9/15/20) PortAventura has announced plans to spend €150 million to build a new mini theme park at the Resort that will be themed around the Futbol team league, LaLiga. The first phase will see a themed restaurant added along with shops and an experienced tied to a mobile app. Phase 2 will add a Laliga themed attraction, and the final third phase will be to open a LaLiga theme park within the PortAventura resort. I’m guessing that the addition of another mini-park experience will be similar in concept to the addition of Ferrari Land mini park in 2017.
They hope to have the first phase complete in time for the 2021/2022 season. You can find some concept art for the projects posted over at The Coaster Kings.
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