Blackstone-Strategic Merger Complete
The Blackstone Group's $6B acquisition of Strategic Hotels & Resorts is completed. The deal was first announced in September, reports the Chicago Business Journal.
Blackstone is paying $14.25 per share for Strategic stock, which marks a 13% premium to Strategic's intra-day trading price on July 23. Strategic chairman Raymond Gellein flirted with selling the company for months before Blackstone entered the picture. At one point, it was believed Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, whose Cascade Investment owns 1.7 million shares in Strategic, was in the running to buy the company.
Strategic's Chicago properties include the InterContinental Chicago and Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park. It placed the Marriott Lincolnshire on the market in August. [CBJ]
