By DAVID GELLES
Hilton Worldwide Holdings, the hotel company owned by the Blackstone Group, filed for an initial public offering on Thursday, seeking to raise at least $1.25 billion in what will be one of the most closely watched I.P.O.’s of the year.
Though details of the offering were not yet available, Hilton could be valued at about $30 billion once it goes public, capping a remarkable turnaround for what was once considered one of the worst deals of last decade’s private equity boom.
Blackstone took Hilton private in 2007, paying $26 billion for the company, which is based in McLean, Va. The deal was among those that came to symbolize the outsize ambitions of buyout shops in the years before the financial crisis as firms including Blackstone went after ever-larger targets.
Hilton did not disclose the precise sum it was looking to raise or how it intended to price shares. But Blackstone does not intend to issue so many shares that it loses control of Hilton. Instead, the private equity firm will continue to own a majority of the voting shares, allowing it to control the makeup of the board.
With comparable hotel chains like Starwood and Marriott trading at about 12 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and Blackstone growing at a healthy clip, its valuation could be about $30 billion by the time shares start trading, which is likely to be sometime early next year….