Universal reveals £133m investment in Bedford theme park

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(Photo by Toby Melville - WPA Pool/Getty Images) US Media giant Comcast has revealed that it has already invested more than £130m in its upcoming Universal theme park in Bedford which was recently ...

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In its first year 8.5m visitors are expected to stream through its turnstiles rising up to 12m within 20 years which would put it ahead of Disneyland Paris as Europe’s most-visited theme park.It will be accompanied by a 500-room resort hotel and a sprawling shopping and dining district with the entire resort creating around 28,000 jobs. The blockbuster forecasts have spurred the government to roll out the red carpet for Comcast.Planning permission for the resort was fast-tracked by ministers in December and earlier this month the Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy hosted Comcast’s chairman Brian Roberts at 11 Downing Street.Walt Disney himself ","collect":0,"end_time":0,"defaultTopTitle":"cityam.com","property":[],"viewcount":null,"language":"en","relate_stocks":{"IE00B19Z9Z06.USD":"Legg Mason ClearBridge - US Aggressive Growth A Acc USD","LU1150488218.USD":"First Eagle Amundi Income Builder AU2-MD USD","LU0208291251.USD":"FRANKLIN MUTUAL U.S. VALUE \"A\" (USD) INC","LU1244550494.USD":"FRANKLIN GLOBAL MULTI-ASSET INCOME \"A\" (USDHEDGED) ACC","LU0130102774.USD":"Natixis Harris Associates US Equity RA USD","LU1201861249.SGD":"Natixis Harris Associates US Equity PA SGD-H","BK4588":"碎股","BK4507":"流媒体概念","LU0070302665.USD":"FRANKLIN MUTUAL U.S. VALUE \"A\" (USD) ACC","BK4550":"红杉资本持仓","LU0868494708.USD":"UBS (LUX) EQUITY SICAV - US TOTAL YIELD SUSTAINABLE \"P\" (USD) INC","LU0029864427.USD":"TEMPLETON GLOBAL \"A\" (USD) INC","LU0980610538.SGD":"Natixis Harris Associates US Equity RA SGD-H","BK4075":"烟草","IE00BSNM7G36.USD":"NEUBERGER BERMAN SYSTEMATIC GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE VALUE \"A\" (USD) ACC","BK4598":"佩洛西持仓","LU1150488135.SGD":"First Eagle Amundi Income Builder AHS-MD SGD-H","LU0868494617.USD":"UBS (LUX) EQUITY SICAV - US TOTAL YIELD SUSTAINABLE \"P\" (USD) ACC","CMCSA":"康卡斯特","BK4100":"有线和卫星","LU0128525929.USD":"TEMPLETON GLOBAL \"A\" (USD) ACC","IE00B19Z9P08.USD":"LEGG MASON CLEARBRIDGE US AGGRESSIVE GROWTH \"A\" (USD) INC","IE00B894F039.SGD":"Legg Mason ClearBridge - US Aggressive Growth A Acc SGD-H","LU0648001328.SGD":"Natixis Harris Associates US Equity RA SGD","LU1244550577.SGD":"FTIF - Franklin Global Multi-Asset Income A (Mdis) SGD-H1","LU0985489474.SGD":"First Eagle Amundi International AHS-C SGD-H","LU1074936037.SGD":"JPMorgan Funds - US Value A (acc) SGD","LU1894683264.USD":"AMUNDI FUNDS US EQUITY RESEARCH VALUE \"A2\" (USD) ACC","BK4581":"高盛持仓","UVV":"环球烟草","LU0878866978.SGD":"First Eagle Amundi International AHS-QD SGD-H","LU1489326972.SGD":"First Eagle Amundi International AHS-MD SGD-H","LU0320765489.SGD":"FTIF - Franklin Mutual US Value A Acc SGD","LU1894683348.USD":"AMUNDI FUNDS US EQUITY RESEARCH VALUE \"A2\" (USD) INC","LU0310800379.SGD":"FTIF - Templeton Global A Acc SGD","BK4534":"瑞士信贷持仓","BK4585":"ETF&股票定投概念","BK4115":"综合电信业务","LU1267930573.SGD":"TEMPLETON GLOBAL \"AA\" (SGD) ACC A","LU0433182093.SGD":"First Eagle Amundi International AS-C SGD","LU1059921491.USD":"NORDEA 1 GLOBAL STABLE EQUITY \"HB\" (USDHDG) ACC","BK4566":"资本集团","LU1244550221.USD":"FRANKLIN GLOBAL MULTI-ASSET  INCOME \"A\" (USDHEDGED) INC (M)","LU0068578508.USD":"First Eagle Amundi International Cl AU-C USD","LU0942090050.USD":"UBS (LUX) EQUITY SICAV - US TOTAL YIELD SUSTAINABLE \"P\" (USD)  INC","LU0708994859.HKD":"TEMPLETON GLOBAL \"A\" (HKD) ACC"},"translate_title":"环球影业宣布投资1.33亿英镑投资贝德福德主题公园","themeId":null,"isJumpTheme":false,"ttsUrl":null,"symbols_score_info":{"UVV":1.5,"CMCSA":0.9},"content_text":"(Photo by Toby Melville - WPA Pool/Getty Images) US Media giant Comcast has revealed that it has already invested more than £130m in its upcoming Universal theme park in Bedford which was recently announced by the government.The 540 acre Universal United Kingdom Resort is due to open in 2031 and is tipped to have rides themed to Jurassic World, James Bond and Paddington. In its first year 8.5m visitors are expected to stream through its turnstiles rising up to 12m within 20 years which would put it ahead of Disneyland Paris as Europe’s most-visited theme park.It will be accompanied by a 500-room resort hotel and a sprawling shopping and dining district with the entire resort creating around 28,000 jobs. The blockbuster forecasts have spurred the government to roll out the red carpet for Comcast.Planning permission for the resort was fast-tracked by ministers in December and earlier this month the Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy hosted Comcast’s chairman Brian Roberts at 11 Downing Street. \n\nThey unveiled the name of the resort and revealed that the government will invest £1.3bn in it, largely to upgrade the local transport infrastructure. Comcast has committed £6bn to building and running the resort making it one of the biggest-ever investments in Britain’s tourism sector. The company has already opened its purse strings.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNews Updates\nStay ahead with our three daily briefings delivering all the key market moves, top business and political stories, and incisive analysis straight to your inbox.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nComcast acquired the land in August 2023 in a clever transaction which minimised the risk of a bidding war and kept the terms confidential. Rather than buying the land directly, Comcast acquired the company that owned the rights to it. As it was a private transaction the purchase price of the company didn’t have to be disclosed and its anonymous-sounding name added to the discretion.The company that Comcast acquired is called Cloud Wing and it has two subsidiaries – SC Collection and Kempston Hardwick Developments which owned the principal rights to the land. Once Universal had acquired Cloud Wing it made SC Collection the developer of its new resort and changed its name to UDX Development Company in a nod to its Universal Destinations and Experiences theme park division.Government cash injectionUDX’s latest accounts show that by the end of 2023 Comcast group companies had lent it £132.6m which was used to cover the acquisition of the land and early development as well as a £32.3m tax charge on it. To ensure that UDX isn’t over-leveraged, Comcast then carried out a debt-for-equity swap so by the end of 2024 UDX had just £11.1m of debt and all the necessary land for the theme park. More than 100 people in the UK have already been employed by Universal to work on the project.\n\nWalt Disney himself used a similar acquisition strategy when opening his theme parks. The first Disneyland in 1955 was such a success that a string of motels and restaurants sprung up next to it spoiling the immaculate theming of the resort. To prevent a repeat of this when he was developing Disney World in Orlando in the 1960s, Walt bought the land there using shell companies with cryptic names such as Tomahawk Properties and M.T. Lott Co.If he had bought the land directly, the owners might have asked for more money safe in the knowledge that the buyer could afford it. Instead, Walt paid the going rate and word didn’t get out that he was behind it until he had snapped up multiple plots spanning a massive 43 square miles.Unlike Walt Disney, Comcast is partly relying on public money. The UK government will spend £474m of its £1.3bn commitment on road and rail upgrades whilst the remainder will be paid to Comcast in two stages. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will transfer a £438m grant once Universal has completed its community infrastructure work with a further £400m paid when the resort opens.","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"1","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"isVideo":false,"video":null,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":0,"need_auth":false,"need_login_tip":false,"code":"91000000","status":"200"},"commentList":[],"isCommentEnd":true,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"isLaohu8Offline":false,"tenantId":"TBGLOBAL","deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.44.0","shortVersion":"4.44.0","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/2644701753","isCrawlerRequest":true}