Private equity on the roll and Blackstone the front guard once again? ######################################## Blackstone to buy Hilton Hotels for $26 billion in cash Bloomberg News, Reuters, The Associated Press, The New York Times Published: July 4, 2007 NEW YORK: The Blackstone Group announcement that it will purchase Hilton Hotels for $26 billion sent shares of other hotel companies sharply higher Wednesday amid speculation that they also might become targets for private equity firms. Stock in InterContinental Hotels Group, the owner of the Holiday Inn chain, climbed as much as 6.4 percent in London, while shares in Accor, the largest European hotel company, gained as much as 8.1 percent in Paris. Whitbread, owner of Premier Travel Inn budget lodges, advanced as much as 7 percent, while Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, Sol Melia and NH Hoteles also rose. Blackstone, the owner of the La Quinta chain, is among the private equity firms buying hotels to profit from their cash flow and real estate holdings. InterContinental stock has risen 36 percent in the past year, aided by bid speculation. "This is a game-changing deal for the hotel sector and will re-ignite bid speculation for other hotel companies," Numis Securities analysts in London, including Richard Carter, wrote in a note to investors. Deals that seemed "unthinkable" a year ago are "now happening apace," the analysts wrote. The Blackstone purchase of Hilton on Tuesday expands its hotel empire to about 600,000 rooms worldwide. More here