Legoland leads sales charge at Merlin

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - Britain's Merlin Entertainments (Other OTC: MIINY - news) posted a 12-percent rise in first-quarter underlying sales on Thursday as marketing related to the Lego Movie boosted trade at its U.S. Legoland attractions.

The world's second-biggest operator of visitor attractions behind Walt Disney with brands such as Madam Tussauds and Sea Life, Merlin said a sales rise for the 18 weeks to May 3 had also been helped by good weather in northern Europe.

Total (NYSE: TOT - news) group revenue, including new attractions opened within the last year, rose 16.5 percent on a constant currency basis.

Despite the good sales performance, Merlin, which floated on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) in November, said full-year expectations remained unchanged as it faces very strong summer trading on a comparative basis from 2013.

Merlin currently makes over 60 percent of its sales in Britain and continental Europe but aims to generate a third each from Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific with a raft of new openings set for the next few years.

The group plans to open a Legoland park in Dubai in 2016 and said it hoped to soon make an announcement on another Legoland opening in Japan.

It said it remained in talks on potential parks in South Korea, China and the United States and was also searching for new brands and strategic opportunities.

Its shares closed at 355 pence on Wednesday, 13 percent above its 315 pence flotation price and valuing the business at 3.6 billion pounds. (Reporting by Neil Maidment; editing by Jason Neely)