Looks like Starwood’s search for a buyer continues as merger talks with IHG have ended. The hotel giant had been in early discussions with UK-based IHG about a merger that would create the world’s largest hotel group, the FT reported earlier. Those talks have ended, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Plateno Group and Jin Jiang Hotels have agreed upon the terms for a merger of their two companies and together foresee the takeover of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. According to the journal China Travel News, Plateno Group and Jin Jiang Hotels were preparing to sign a merger agreement for their two companies, while keeping operations independent. The two actors would thus be on the point of creating the biggest group of hotels in China with a total of some 475,000 rooms operating or under development, including close to 298,000 for Plateno and 177,000 for Jin Jiang. Together the two groups would foresee a major operation on the international hotel market. They are said to be studying the possibility of buying Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which would allow them to become the biggest hotel group worldwide.
Less than two years after going public, McLean-based Hilton Worldwide Holdings is preparing for its next corporate act. The giant hotelier is considering a number of business initiatives, including paying a modest dividend to shareholders, repurchasing its stock and spinning off the 148 hotels it owns and leases around the world. The company might also create a company for its timeshare business, which is headquartered in Orlando.
Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios SAU said on Tuesday that its wholly owned unit, Hispania Real SOCIMI SAU (Hispania), had signed an agreement with Grupo Barcelo to establish a joined hotel company focused on holiday sector. Under the deal Hispania will initially buy 11 hotels and one shopping center and it will have the option to buy five additional hotels and one more shopping center
It’s like an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” that plays itself endlessly for travelers. It happened to Judith Searcy when she stayed at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront in Oregon this summer. If you check your credit card statement, you may find that it has happened to you, too. For Searcy, the mystery was a $518 pending charge to her card after she checked out of the Marriott. “I had not been told of this charge, nor did I have any documentation for it,” says Searcy, who is retired and lives in Austin. She phoned Marriott, which asked her to leave a voice mail for a manager. Days later, the $518 charge disappeared.
InterContinental Hotels Group could be a takeover target for rivals, analysts believe, with a £7bn offer enough to secure board agreement. Activist investor Marcato Capital - which owns 4% of IHG - last month called for the company to merge with one of its peers to boost shareholder value. Now Berenberg, which has issued a buy note with a £27.50 price target, says the company could merge or take over Hyatt but is more likely to be prey than predator, with Starwood or Hilton the most obvious acquirers.
An American hedge fund has stepped up attempts to persuade hotelier InterContinental Hotels, which runs the Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn brands, to consider a blockbuster merger with a big rival. "Each of these companies would be a fit for IHG by broadening its geographic footprint in the most desirable hospitality markets, expanding chain scale diversification, increasing asset-light earnings, realizing cost savings, improving system fund benefits, and lowering cost of capital", Marcato said.
The chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group has brushed off speculation about a £6 billion takeover approach, insisting that the company can grow under its own management. A major investor in the FTSE 100 hotels giant, hedge fund Marcato Capital Management, last week urged InterContinental to consider a tie-up with a rival, rather than fall prey to a foreign bid — the £6 billion offer came from an unnamed US suitor. But chief executive Richard Solomons asserted that the group, which also owns the Crowne Plaza chain, could grow under its own management, adding that its $10 billion (£5.96 billion) market capitalisation had returned “a ton” of value to shareholders.
Blackstone Group (BX) is preparing to check out of Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. at a more opportune time than the private-equity shop checked in six years ago. When Hilton’s initial stock offering is priced Wednesday evening, it will be cheerily welcomed into a market in love with hotel stocks, which have been excellent performers all year, thanks to climbing occupancy rates and room charges. Hilton shares will begin trading Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol "HLT." Investors tend to flock to lodging stocks near the mid-point of an economic recovery cycle, as incremental gains in employment and corporate spending help bestow pricing power and profit-margin leverage upon hotel operators.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the Saudi billionaire with stakes in companies including Citigroup Inc., is weighing options including an initial public offering for Four Seasons Holdings Inc. and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc. The founder and Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Co. (KINGDOM), who took a 95 percent stake in the Four Seasons chain with Bill Gates, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Erik Schatzker in Chicago yesterday he’s considering strategic options for the two companies including an IPO or merger.
In one of the largest buyouts of all time, Blackstone Group acquired Hilton Hotels in the heady days of 2007 for $26bn including debt. It sought to give the hotel company a new lease of life, and part of the private equity group’s task was to restore the Waldorf Astoria’s original grandeur. Now after six years under Blackstone ownership, the company – renamed Hilton Worldwide – is set to go public within weeks. Seeking at least $1.25bn, the offering would be the highest amount raised for a US hotel company and would move the buyout firm closer to realising the profits from its biggest single investment.
Hilton Worldwide will seek to raise $1.25 billion from an initial public offering of its common stock. The McLean, Va.-based hotel operator filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The company said in a written statement that it has not yet determined the number of shares that will be offered and at what price.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. During the past few years, Accor has earned a reputation for feisty boardroom showdowns and sensational management reshuffles. On Tuesday, Europe’s largest hotel group by number of rooms named another new chief executive. At a board meeting the company confirmed that Sébastien Bazin, until now the European head of California-based Colony Capital, would become the new chairman and chief executive with immediate effect.
Langham Hospitality Investments, an investment trust controlled by property developer Great Eagle Holdings Ltd, raised about US$550 million in an IPO on Thursday, the first of several issuers looking to benefit from a surge in investors’ demand for commercial property and high-yield securities in Hong Kong. The investment trust offered 852.2 million share stapled units at HK$5 each, putting the total deal at HK$4.26 billion ($549 million), said sources with direct knowledge of the deal, who were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter. The offering was marketed at a range of HK$4.65-5.36 per unit.
With the U.S. hotel industry nearly fully recovered from the recession, are lenders finally ready to revive the long-dormant construction industry for hotels? Some hoteliers speaking at an industry conference this week in Los Angeles said that construction lending has come back, and a wave of new hotel openings will result in the coming years. Others, however, cautioned that underwriting standards remain stricter than during the boom, and lenders mostly are focusing their attention on the best projects, markets and developers.
In 2009, when Blackstone relocated Hilton Worldwide’s headquarters from Beverly Hills to McLean, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., it was much more than a change of scenery and address. Acquired by Blackstone for nearly $27 billion a couple of years earlier, Hilton had been languishing, falling behind better-positioned chains such as Marriott and InterContinental, and was in dire need of a dramatic change in management culture from a laid-back California style to a more professional and analytic approach.
Langham Hospitality Investments, a trust backed by Great Eagle Holdings Ltd. (41) hotels, is seeking as much as $700 million in an initial public offering in Hong Kong, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Langham Hospitality, based in Hong Kong, began gauging demand for the IPO this week and plans to start trading late next month, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The trust may raise at least $600 million, they said.
Tata Group's Indian Hotels and a fund controlled by Italy's Montezemolo & Partners SpA may increase their $1.86 billion buyout offer for U.S.-listed Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., a senior executive with knowledge of the discussions said Thursday. The higher bid would be an attempt to entice major shareholders of the Bermuda-based luxury property operator, the executive said. Earlier this month, the board of Orient-Express rejected Indian Hotels' unsolicited offer saying in a letter that it was "deeply unattractive from a financial perspective." The executive didn't specify the new offer price.
Indian Hotels Company Ltd, which runs the Taj Group of Hotels, is altering its business model, according to people familiar with the development. Till now, India's largest hospitality chain has been constructing hotel projects itself, which often leads to cost over-runs and clogged finances. Under a new model, all hotel projects of the company will be executed by Tata Realty Infrastructure Ltd (TRIL), while IHCL will manage them, one person said.
If the Tatas could, they would have loved to change the surname of Jesse Robert Lovejoy to 'Killjoy’. The eminent lawyer, who happens to be the chairman of Orient-Express, has dashed the hopes of Tata-owned Indian Hotels to be in the driver’s seat of the Bermuda-based firm that owns 45 hotels, cruise and luxury rail businesses in 22 countries, including ‘21’ Club – one of New York’s most iconic restaurants and watering holes.