Hilton Worldwide To Spin Off Hotels Like Marriott Did Years Ago
Skift Take
Hilton Worldwide's pursuit of strategic alternatives, including spinning off its real estate business into a real estate investment trust, likely won't have a direct impact on guests but could make Hilton Worldwide shareholders, including its largest one, Blackstone, very happy.
Hilton Worldwide CEO Christopher Nassetta was chief operating officer of Host Hotels & Resorts in 1998 when Marriott converted its owned hotel unit into a real estate investment trust, and now Hilton Worldwide is poised to execute a similar maneuver -- and one that would escape an Internal Revenue Service clampdown on such financial restructurings.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Hilton Worldwide plans to spin off 147 properties that it owns or leases into a real estate investment trust and, because Hilton already sought IRS approval for the spinoff, Hil
