Wyndham's Rumored Sale Becomes Fact With $3B-Plus Pact

DALLAS-After months of rumored talk about its sale, Wyndham International Inc. has gone public with the news that a $3.24-billion definitive agreement has been inked with the Blackstone Group.

Under the agreement, the New York City-based Blackstone will buy all outstanding common stock of the Dallas hotelier for $1.15 per share in cash, according to today’s press release. The deal already has the unanimous nod from Wyndham’s board and carried shareholders’ approval. If all goes as planned, the sale will close in the fourth quarter.

The Wyndham repositioning in recent years has sparked repeated talk and speculation that a sale was imminent. The portfolio’s been pared to 32 high-end hotels and resorts plus the Golden Door spa. “All of this has made Wyndham a much desired and sought after company in today’s real estate market,” Fred J. Kleisner, Wyndham’s chairman, says in the release. Wyndham execs didn’t return telephone calls by publication time.

“I hadn’t heard it was Blackstone, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Arthur Adler, managing director and CEO-Americas for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, tells GlobeSt.com. “Blackstone likes buying companies and buying companies with real estate.”

Adler predicts Blackstone’s plan for Wyndham most likely will follow the same playbook as its October 2004 acquisition, Prime Hospitality Corp. of Fairfield, NJ. “It has management. It had brand and it has assets,” he says. “Wyndham is significantly larger, but it’s probably a similar strategy.”

Two months after Blackstone bought Prime, it sold the AmeriSuites brand to Chicago-based Hyatt Corp. started to finesse extended stay conversions of its Wellesley Inn & Suites and set up the new brand of Prime Hotels & Resorts. It’s a “season and sell off” strategy that easily could be applied to Wyndham, Adler says.