Australia-based cinema and theme park operator Village Roadshow (VR) has announced that plans for the privatisation of the business have been dropped.

Earlier this month the company announced that its major shareholder, Village Roadshow Corporation (VRC), had informed VR that it was working on a proposal for its potential privatisation.

However, the company has been unable to arrange finance on terms that would be acceptable to VRC and as a consequence the plans have been dropped.

VRC, which is managed by John Kirby, Robert Kirby and Graham Burke, controls around 61 per cent of the ordinary shares in VR. All three are also executive directors of VR.

Village Roadshow owns and operates Australian theme parks and attractions including Sea World, Wet 'n' Wild Water World and Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast as well as Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife World and Sydney Tower.