Wall Stree Journal Journal

Almost exactly two years to the day after the close of the Blackstone, Hilton merger, the flailing travel & leisure market has pounded hotel investments. Blackstone acquired Hilton, making the public company private, for $26 billion, taking the global hospitality company at $47.50 per share. The deal was financed with $20.6 billion of mortgage and mezzanine secured debt incurred by subsidiaries of Hilton and approximately $5.7 billion of equity invested by investment funds affiliated with the Blackstone Group, as reported by GlobeSt.com previously.

The property was financed by a veritable gang of banks, companies and funds, namely: Bear Stearns, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. This complicates things further as Bear Stearns' investment was assumed by the Federal Reserve when the failed financial giant was sold to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. This accounts for what the WSJ is reporting as $4 billion of Hilton debt.

The acquisition brought 2,896 properties and 490,000 rooms with it and was, at the time, lauded by Blackstone to be "an important strategic investment."