Merlin Entertainments, the Blackstone-owned theme park group whose assets include Madame Tussauds, Legoland, and the London Eye, is preparing a stock market flotation, setting the stage for a flurry of UK listings in the new year.

The planned share offer, which would be the first big listing on the London Stock Exchange since the onset of the financial crisis, would value Merlin at about £2bn and is expected in early 2010.