Westin To Make IPO, Euro Deal

Chairman and CEO Juergen Bartels put rumors to rest last week about Westin Hotels & Resorts' future ownership when he announced that the hotel chain would make an initial public offering sometime this year.

Bartels also privately confirmed that the chain was looking at making one of two deals with European hotel chains, though he was not ready to say more.

Bartels also made no further comment on the timing or nature of the IPO. In November, Westin had said it was considering making the offering and filing a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the first quarter of this year. Its plan was to offer common stock by prospectus only and to use the proceeds for repayment of indebtedness and general operations.

Speaking at a Woodside Travel Trust symposium late last month, Fred Kleisner, Westin president and COO, said, "Our intent is to become a public company and there are different ways to do that. You can offer stock options to the public or you can do it through mergers."

Kleisner said then that Westin was close to announcing its own acquisition of a hotel chain or group of hotels in Europe. "Europe is Westin's new frontier of development, and we're gearing up for a major acquisition there," he said.

Bartels said Westin had pumped about $680 million into property renovations and construction during the past 18 months, including the installation of Fidelio as a common property management system. While he acknowledged that there have been overbookings and other reservations problems, he said they were implementation pains that have been addressed and that the system will be fully operational at all Westin hotels by the end of June.