American hotel operator Hilton Hotels Corporation will exchange contracts this week for 10 European hotels with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds for more than $750m (£375m). The Times
The portfolio comprises two hotesl in France, one of which is the Hilton Charles de Gaulle, near Paris, and the Hilton Barcelona. There are three in Germany and single properties in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Brussels and the Canary Islands. Hilton Hotels will to continue to operate the hotels under long-term agreements.
The sale comes as Hilton Hotels completes the sale of the Scandic Hotels chain for $1.1bn to EQT, the Stockholm-based private equity firm.
The two sales will take Hilton Hotels' total disposals to about $3bn, or almost half the amount that it paid to reunite the Hilton brand worldwide in February 2006, when it bought Hilton International for £3.3bn.
Morgan Stanley has an interest in 13 Hilton hotels in America and this month bought 13 hotels from All Nippon Airways, the Japanese airline, for Y281.3bn (£1.2bn) in Asia Pacific’s biggest hotel property deal.