Originally Posted by
Stefan Daystrom
Seems to me this has already happened (Scandic, my favoite HHonors brand by far in most of the countries it's in, given that I prefer "all included" midliners to nickel-and-dimers like Hilton proper as all my stays are on my own dime, and HGI so far has a trivial presence overseas except perhaps for Italy).
But it happened so recently, I wonder, were they already in talks with Blackstone at the time and did that have something to do with the spinoff of Scandic?
It's unlikely that the two were related. The Scandic divestiture was pretty much expected after Hilton Hotel Corp. (US) acquired Hilton International in early 2006. Scandic wasn't the right brand for Hilton to grow it's midscale presence internationally (that's what Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton are for), and HHC needed to pay down some of the acquisition debt.
We don't know the exact timing of the Blackstone discussions yet, but when Hilton files its merger proxy in the next few weeks, that will all be disclosed.