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Blackstone Group, a big private equity group, is looking into a possible deal to buy Anheuser-Busch InBev’s U.S. theme parks, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

The world’s biggest brewer has been looking for months to find a buyer for its theme parks, which include SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. A deal could help the company pay down debt from InBev’s acquisition of Anheuser-Busch last year. “No deal was expected imminently,” the Journal reported. Blackstone is no stranger to theme parks; it already owns 50 percent of Universal Orlando.

SeaWorld Orlando executives held an early-morning staff meeting today - a meeting that had become the subject of intense speculation, according to Jason Garcia, a staff writer for the Orlando Sentinel. A local TV station had reported that SeaWorld executives intended to announce that the big park had been sold. But SeaWorld said the staff meeting was instead a “regularly scheduled employee communications meeting.” Executives did not make any announcements about the ownership future of the park. From Garcia’s story:

With television satellite trucks parked outside of the resort, SeaWorld General Manager Dan Brown told employees that he would not discuss “rumors” about a potential sale of Busch Entertainment Corp. or any of its 10 theme parks and that he did not have any major announcements to make. Brown made the comments at the outset of the 8 a.m. meeting and repeated them again when asked during a question-and-answer session.

Anheuser-Busch InBev would not discuss the speculation about a potential deal, according to several reports.

Our request: If Lager Heads readers were at the meeting, can you send us a line, or comment on the blog, to let us know what happened, or about any other developments surrounding the parks? Thanks a ton. We are reachable at jmcwilliams@post-dispatch.com.