Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- A purchase by Blackstone Group LP of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s amusement park business would be the biggest private-equity deal this year and may signal a resurgence of buyouts after a two-year drought that left the firms with $400 billion in unspent funds.

Blackstone is in talks to buy the parks, which include SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, for as much as $3 billion in a transaction that may be announced this week, according to a person familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Representatives of Blackstone and InBev declined to comment.

At that price, the deal would top Silver Lake’s agreement last month to take a majority stake in EBay Inc.’s Skype unit for $2 billion, and KKR & Co.’s $1.8 billion acquisition of Oriental Brewery Co. from InBev. A 58 percent rebound in global stock markets from their March lows has allowed firms to sell more of their holdings at a profit and encouraged investors to commit capital to buyout funds.

“The private-equity industry will come back and be stronger than it was just a few years ago,” David Rubenstein, co-founder of Washington-based Carlyle Group Inc., said in an interview on Oct. 1. “We’re now investing again.”

Blackstone, founded in 1985 by Stephen Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson, is the biggest private-equity firm and manages the industry’s largest single buyout pool, a $21.7 billion fund it finished raising in 2007. Schwarzman has estimated that Blackstone in total has $29 billion in available capital across its funds.

SeaWorld, Busch Gardens

Buying the InBev unit would give Blackstone SeaWorld parks in San Diego, San Antonio and Orlando, Florida, according to their Web sites. Busch Gardens has parks featuring rollercoaster rides and attractions in Tampa Bay, Florida, and Williamsburg, Virginia, according to their Web sites.

Blackstone co-owns the Universal Orlando park with NBC Universal, a unit of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co. The New York-based private-equity firm also controls Merlin Entertainments Group Ltd., which operates attractions including the Madame Tussauds waxworks museum and the London Eye Ferris Wheel.

Private-equity firms typically finance transactions with a combination of investors’ cash and borrowed money. They seek to increase profits by cutting costs or achieving economies of scale by combining operations of similar businesses and selling the company years later to a corporate buyer or through a share sale. The credit crisis cut off funding for deals over the past two years and slumping stock markets made it difficult for firms to sell existing holdings and return funds to investors.

Non-Core Asset

Buying a so-called non-core asset such as InBev’s amusement park unit, is a classic strategy for private-equity firms, said Paul Schaye, managing partner of New York-based Chestnut Hill Partners, which helps buyout groups find targets.

“These deals make perfect sense right now,” Schaye said. “Companies want to divest assets, and the private-equity money is there, with a real motivation to put it to work.”

Private-equity firms worldwide have about $400 billion in committed, unspent funds, according to Pitchbook Data Inc., a Seattle-based researcher.

InBev, the world’s largest brewer, inherited the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens amusement parks as part of its $52 billion merger with Anheuser-Busch last year. The company has since cut jobs, culled marketing budgets and sold assets to pay down debt.

U.S. theme parks have been hurt by rising unemployment and a slumping economy as consumers scale back travel. Walt Disney Co., based in Burbank, California, cut jobs at its attractions this year and increased discounts. Six Flags Inc., the owner of 20 theme parks, sought bankruptcy protection in June.

Beer Business

A sale of the parks would give AB Inbev funds to continue repaying debt and later expand overseas in its main beer business. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito said in a September interview that there will be “much more” room for the company to expand internationally, including through acquisitions, once it has paid down more of its debt.

Putting that money to work may still take some time. This year’s transactions are a fraction the size of the deals in 2006 and 2007, when a record $1.4 trillion worth of takeovers were announced. Even with a rebound in deals, transactions worth $10 billion or more are unlikely to return soon, said Steven Kaplan, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

“This is classic private equity, which is where the world is headed,” Kaplan said. With the cheap credit that was available in 2006 and 2007, it “was private equity on debt steroids.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Kelly in New York at jkelly14@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 5, 2009 00:01 EDT