Candover's Parques Reunidos Sale Delayed Until Autumn-Sources

Candover has postponed the sale of Spanish theme park operator Parques Reunidos until after the summer, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.

Second round bids from Providence Equity Partners, Apollo Management and a consortium of Advent International and Carlyle Group were expected shortly, people said.

However the bidders want to wait to see if the company meets its budget targets, a key concern while Spain's economy remains in the doldrums and the recession has curtailed travel and tourism especially in Europe, people said.

Candover had originally planned to list Parques Reunidos and in May hired JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Credit-Suisse Group (CS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) to run the process.

The chances of a flotation receded amid renewed market turbulence that halted a number of large IPOs, especially those backed by private equity.

Candover bought Parques Reunidos for around EUR900 million and had been hoping to get as much as EUR2 billion on a sale, according to a recent press report.

-By Marietta Cauchi, Christopher Bjork and Jessica Hodgson of Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]