Merlin Entertainments, the Blackstone-owned theme park group whose assets include Madame Tussauds, Legoland, Sealife, the London Eye and Gardaland, indicated it would float the business as soon as market conditions allowed.

The group on Friday revealed its first results in compliance with the Walker guidelines for greater transparency, showing its core business – excluding the acquisition of Madame Tussauds and Gardaland – increased like-for-like revenues by 9 per cent in 2007.