Ardent Leisure has agreed to sell its bowling and entertainment division to Timezone owner The Entertainment and Education Group (TEEG) for $160 million.
The sale leaves the company with just two businesses – its Gold Coast-based Theme Parks division and the US-based Main Event Entertainment.
“The primary focus at the moment is on attracting the right candidate and CEO of Main Event,” chairman Gary Weiss told the Australian Financial Review, which broke the story. “Once we have the main Event candidate identified we do have an opportunity then to review our resourcing requirements at head office at that time.”
The sale of the division includes the AMF and Kingpin bowling centres as well as Playtime arcades across Australasia and came after an unsolicited approach by TEEG – jointly owned byQuadrant Private Equity and the Steinberg family – which recently acquired the international business of family entertainment centre Timezone Group.
Sell offs
The bowling sale gives Ardent extra funds to accelerate its turnaround plans of Main Event and Dreamworld. Analysts believe the company may look to sell off the theme parks business.
TEEG is jointly owned by Quadrant Private Equity and the Steinberg family. It recently acquired the international business of Timezone Group which operates 200 FECs across the Asia Pacific region and is looking to invest in the Leisure and Learning space throughout Australia and Asia.