Hilton Hotels Corp. today announced it is exploring a possible sale of its Scandic brand, which it acquired in February as part of its Hilton Group PLC deal
(BTN, Jan. 23). Hilton also announced that its Hilton International unit intended to put up for sale 10 other properties in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland by the end of September.
Scandic consists of about 130 hotels, totaling 23,000 rooms, spread out over Scandinavia. Its possible sale may signal Hilton's intent to populate Europe with its domestic, select-service brands, such as Hampton Inn and Doubletree, as president and COO of Hilton Hotels Corp. Matt Hart told Business Travel News in May
(BTN, May 15).
Hilton CFO Robert La Forgia said a possible sale of Scandic and the other properties would be part of a strategy to rid the company of real estate ownership and focus on management and franchising, similar to Starwood Hotels & Resorts' approach with this year's sale of 33 hotels to Host Hotels & Resorts
(BTN, June 5).
"Hilton's objective on asset sales is to support our stated strategy of generating a higher proportion of future earnings from managing and franchising hotels and less from hotel ownership," said La Forgia. Since 2005, Hilton already has sold more than $1.3 billion in assets.
Hilton said that it had no firm timeline on a possible Scandic sale.