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Parques completes IPO Spanish group bolsters board for stock market debut


Prior to its recent IPO (initial public offering) on the Spanish stock exchange, Parques Reunidos has made a number of senior new appointments. Effective April 13, the board of the Madrid-based park and attractions operator now comprises one executive director and six non-executive directors, of which three are independent. Serving as CEO of the group, which


Fernando Eiroa


operates over 55 parks and attractions in 12 nations including various European countries, the USA and soon UAE, is Fernando Eiroa. The former boss of Parques Reunidos’ Palace Entertainment division in the US succeeded Yann Caillère (ex-Accor Hotels and Disneyland Paris) as CEO in February


this year, after just over two years in the post. Prior to joining Parques Reunidos, Eiroa was a country manager at Best 4 Cell. Appointed non-executive chairman, Peter Long brings with him over 30 years’ international travel and


Wanda wants KCC


KCC Entertainment Design, the Belgian-based designer of FECs and other themed attractions, has landed a contract to design a unique indoor theme park for the Wanda Group in China The 34,000 square metre park in the Jiangsu


province city of Nanjing will open in 2017/18 as part of the offering at a high class shopping mall based on the local area’s rich culture, history and folklore. For example, a drop tower is located inside a Chinese pagoda. Also featured will be a multi-sensory interactive rollercoaster and several attractions incorporating virtual reality and 3D mapping. The importance of the project to Wanda was highlighted recently by a launch event in


Nanjing with a live performance of artists of from the company’s ambitious Han Show in the city of Wuhan. directed by a Belgian Italian Franco Dragone.


This is not the first park to be designed by KCC


for this important client, however. It is also working on plans for 25,000 sq m indoor theme park opening next year in Qindao, along with several


more projects across China, ranging in size from 9,000 to 34,000 sq m. The Dalian Wanda Group


recently bought the Hollywood film studio Legendary Entertainment and is also the owner of the AMC Cinemas and Ironman triathlon brands.


leisure industry experience, having been instrumental in the merger of TUI Travel with TUI AG in December 2014, and First Choice Holidays and TUI AG before it. Peter is also chairman of Royal Mail PLC, the privatised British postal service. New independent non-executive directors of Parques


Reunidos include Nicolás Villén, Johan Svanstrom and Fredrik Arp. Villén is a former CEO of Ferrovial Aeropuertos, which once ran the British airports London Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Southampton, and also Naples airport in Italy. Like Long, Johan Svanstrom, has considerable


travel industry experience, heading up the Hotels.com and EAN brands and also serving as a member of the leadership team at Expedia. Prior to joining Expedia, he was head of digital innovations at McDonald’s. Former Volvo CEO and Parques Reunidods chairman Fredrik Arp now holds a portfolio of non- executive directorships and acts as a senior advisor to multi-national businesses including Nolato AB,


Vattenfall AB and Technogym. Javier Abad, meanwhile, is a founding partner of Arle Capital Partners, the UK private equity fund that took control of Parques Reunidos in 2011. He was previously a partner at Candover Partners. A Spanish national with close to 20 years’ private equity experience, Abad has been vice-chairman of the Parques Reunidos board since 2007. Joining Abad as a new non-executive, John


Arney founded Arle via the 2011 management buyout of Candover Partners and was previously involved in the 1999 buy-out of Vardon Attractions from Merlin Entertainments,. Details of the in-house management team of Parques


Reunidos can be found at parquesreunidos.com/talent/management-team/ Debuting on the BME index in Madrid at the start of


this month as PQR, Parques Reunidos shares were trading at €14.50 ($16.50) at the time of writing high, representing a market capitalisation of €1,170,760 ($1.3bn).


10


MAY 2016


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