Five reasons not to buy into Merlin Entertainments IPO?

block10

Merlin has already sold & leased back its key assets (Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Warwick Castle and Madame Tussauds). Not sure what assets it has left, which it can leverage for future growth / financing.

I also cant seen the synergies between a theme park, wax museum, legoland & sea life centre.

srcandas

block10 wrote: »

Merlin has already sold & leased back its key assets (Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Warwick Castle and Madame Tussauds). Not sure what assets it has left, which it can leverage for future growth / financing.

It is the debt and finance that has made me skip this one

block10 wrote: »

I also cant seen the synergies between a theme park, wax museum, legoland & sea life centre.

But I see tons of synergy. A lot of what they do is marketing on a global scale and scalability means lower costs. And all those things target a typical family (not individual) and families give the best money grab potential.

I think they have great potential as the world's middle class grows but for me the price is too high :cool:

blinko

block10 wrote: »

Merlin has already sold & leased back its key assets (Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Warwick Castle and Madame Tussauds). Not sure what assets it has left, which it can leverage for future growth / financing.

I also cant seen the synergies between a theme park, wax museum, legoland & sea life centre.

Bud there are HUGE synergies there!!!

Have to admit that debt is a b.i.t.c.h, funny how people think if the owners pumped say £250m into reducing the debt before the float and bringing it under £1bn they would probably achieve an extra £50m on float....

Anyway, a great company if you ask me. comparing to disney etc expecting Merlin to have PE of 20

Wise_Investor_2

I think I'm going to give this one a miss after much going back and forth. Too much 'excitement' following RM floatation and I really can't see this one being valued at much more than £3.3bn consistently for quite some time.

Glen_Clark

chucknorris wrote: »

Have you factored in that the stock market is going to take off during the next few days though? I know this because I partially sold out today and cashed in about half of my none ISA shares, so obviously history will prove that decision was the wrong move.

Fear Not. I have been buying this week so a stockmarket fall cannot be far away

Glen_Clark

Wise_Investor wrote: »

I thought it was a good share to diversify with as economic picks-up.

What makes you think the economy is picking up?
Rising house prices :rotfl:
Rising share prices :rotfl:
Bank of England forecasts (remember their inflation forecasts):rotfl:
This is just the value of the pound falling after £375 billion of money printing.
Incomes are fairly static whilst the price of essentials, and household debt is rising = Less disposable income. So where are people going to economize?

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

I wouldn't touch this IPO with a 50 foot pole

Thrugelmir

Glen_Clark wrote: »

What makes you think the economy is picking up?
Rising house prices :rotfl:
Rising share prices :rotfl:
Bank of England forecasts (remember their inflation forecasts):rotfl:
This is just the value of the pound falling after £375 billion of money printing.
Incomes are fairly static whilst the price of essentials, and household debt is rising = Less disposable income. So where are people going to economize?

Disappointing Corporate earnings announcements this week, BT, Shell, Lloyds, RBS, BP all poor. Very little value left in blue chips currently. Wonder if there's another storm brewing.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Fear Not. I have been buying this week so a stockmarket fall cannot be far away

Does that happen to you too? It seems to happen to me as well.

What have you purchased?

Glen_Clark

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

Does that happen to you too? It seems to happen to me as well.

What have you purchased?

This week I just added to my holdings of '
ATST - an Investment Trust on a discount
VUSA - low charging ETF
VUKE - low charging ETF
My pension is now 63% in 27 Equities (mainly funds), 37% cash - fixed 4.5% cash ISA, NSI index linkers, and 2% instant access account (not open to new investors)
I agree with Thrugelmuir, there is very little value left in Blue Chips. But there is very little value left in the pound with £375 billion QE funny money still flying around. So I was thinking of Warren Buffet's comment 'The Dangers of being out of the market are greater than the dangers of being in."