The U.S.-Chinese joint venture that owns Interstate Hotels &
Resorts, the largest independent hotel-operator in the U.S., is in
discussion to sell the company, according to people familiar with
the matter.
Hotel investor Thayer Lodging Group and Chinese hotel company
Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co. own Interstate
through a partnership that acquired the company in a 2010 deal
valued at $307 million.
The owners have hired investment bank Moelis & Co. to market
the company and are considering offers, these people said. The
Arlington, Va.-based company is expected to fetch a price of more
than $600 million, the people said.
Interstate, which manages about 460 hotels with 81,000 rooms
according to its website, has been one of the leaders in a trend
that has seen independent hotel managers grow their business this
past decade.
Hotel companies like Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. and Marriott
International Inc. have been expanding their room-count rapidly by
mostly getting out of the hotel ownership and management business,
instead focusing on franchising their brands.
That means hotel owners are increasingly turning to independent
hotel managers like Interstate to run their properties. Interstate
also manages many of the limited-service hotel brands, like Hilton
Garden Inn and Courtyard by Marriott, which has been one of the
fast-growing segments of the industry.
Jin Jiang earlier this month made plans to merge with Plateno
Group, another Chinese hotel company, to create China's largest
hotel group with a combined room-count of about 475,000, according
to people familiar with the matter.
Write to Craig Karmin at craig.karmin@wsj.com and Dana Mattioli
at dana.mattioli@wsj.com
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