Hilton Hotels has exchanged contracts to sell its Scandic Hotel chain to private equity group EQT for approximately US$1.1 billion.
It expects net proceeds after transaction costs and taxes to be around $1.04 billion.
The transaction is expected to be completed in April, subject to clearance from the European Union regulators.
Hilton announced in August 2006 that it was looking to sell all or part of the Scandic business.
The transaction involves the sale of 132 hotels, of which 128 are Scandic hotels and three are Hilton hotels, plus one other hotel.
Of the 132 hotels, three are owned, 121 are leased, five are managed, and three are franchised.
Following the sale, Hilton will continue to have a presence in Nordic with six Hilton hotels – three in Finland (including the Hilton Helsinki Vantaa Airport due to open in August 2007), two in Sweden and one in Denmark at Copenhagen airport.
By Bev Fearis
