Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, will bid for USJ Co this month to take the operator of Japan’s Universal Studios theme park private, according to Reuters. The deal is reported to be worth as much as 60 billion yen ($610 million).
Osaka-based USJ, which runs a park based on movies such as Spiderman and Jurassic Park, is about 40%-owned by Crane Holdings, a Goldman-related fund.
Crane will join with two other firms to buy the remaining 60% of the business, the report says.
USJ’s current market value is around 82.6 billion yen and assuming a premium of about 10 billion yen.
USJ listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in March 2007.
In July 2008, European private equity firm PAI partners and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs, acquired German construction materials company Xella International from the Haniel Group. The size of the deal was not disclosed but was believed to be around €2 billion.
D.C.