Hilton Worldwide disclosed on Monday that it plans to raise up to $2.4 billion in its upcoming initial public offering, in what would be one of the biggest stock sales of the year.
The hotel operator said in an amended prospectus that it plans to sell its shares at $18 to $21 each. At the midpoint of that range, the company would be valued at about $19.2 billion.
Should Hilton raise the maximum amount, it would claim the title for second-biggest I.P.O. of 2013, trailing only the energy company Plains GP Holdings. Twitter, whose market debut drew an enormous amount of coverage and interest from potential investors, raised about $1.8 billion.
If completed, Hilton’s stock sale would mark yet another instance of a private equity firm taking one of its investments back to the public markets to generate a return. The Blackstone Group, a private equity firm that announced its $26 billion takeover of Hilton in the summer of 2007, has steadily sold off many of its holding companies to cash in, seizing on the high valuations of the stock markets.
Blackstone plans to sell 48.7 million shares in the offering, while the company itself is selling 64.1 million shares. Hilton expects to use its cut of the proceeds to pay down debt.
The hotelier 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.
