Saturday, February 20, 2010

Blackstone Group Refinances Debt at Hilton Hotels

The Blackstone Group has reached a deal to reorganize the debt load of Hilton Hotels, shoring up the finances of one of its crown jewels, a person briefed on the matter said on Friday. The deal would cut Hilton’s debt burden to about $16 billion from $20 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Blackstone will inject an additional $800 million of capital to buy back Hilton’s debt at a discount, this person said. The maturities of some of Hilton’s debt will also be pushed back. A Blackstone spokesman declined to comment. Blackstone agreed to acquire Hilton in 2007 for $26 billion. Negotiations with Hilton’s lenders have been going on for months. One complication is that several billions of dollars of Hilton debt is held by an unusual entity: the Federal Reserve, which assumed loans to Hilton made by Bear Stearns when it helped rescue the investment bank almost two years ago.

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