Hilton Worldwide, the giant hotel operator, priced its eagerly awaited initial public offering at $20 a share as it prepares for a return to the public markets, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.
At that price, the midpoint of its expected range, the company would have an equity value of about $19.7 billion.
By the time Hilton set its estimated price range last week, the company was set to claim one of the three biggest I.P.O.’s in a big year for initial stock sales.
Its current owner, the Blackstone Group, announced its deal for the hotel chain in the summer of 2007, at the height of the private equity boom. Soon after the deal closed, the company struggled amid the crashing debt market and the slowing travel economy. But Blackstone managed to turn the company around, including by striking a deal with creditors that cut its debt load.
The company plans to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “HLT.â€
The banks advising on the I.P.O. are led by Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.
