HNA Group plans to sell its stake in Hilton

China-based HNA Group, Hilton's largest shareholder, plans to sell its 26% stake in the hotel company.

HNA intends to sell its 82.5 million shares in Hilton, the hotel company said in an Securities and Exchange Commission document filed on Thursday. Hilton on Thursday morning was trading at almost $79 a share, valuing HNA's stake at about $6.5 billion. Thursday's share price is about 50% more than the split-adjusted $52.50 a share HNA paid in October 2016.

HNA became Hilton's largest shareholder when it acquired its stake from Blackstone Group. As part of the deal, HNA acquired 25% of real estate investment trust Park Hotels & Resorts and 25% of timeshare operator Hilton Grand Vacations, which have both since been spun off.

Last month, HNA said it would sell its stake in Park Hotels, which at the time was valued at about $1.4 billion, as well as its share of Hilton Grand Vacations.

Other Chinese companies are loosening their foothold in the U.S. lodging sector.
In late February, the Chinese government said it would take control of Anbang Insurance Group, owner of the Waldorf Astoria New York, for one year after alleging that the company's ex-chairman committed "economic crimes." The Chinese government is also in talks to sell all or part of the Strategic Hotels portfolio Anbang acquired from Blackstone in 2016, The Real Deal reported last month. That portfolio includes the InterContinental Miami, New York's JW Marriott Essex House and San Francisco's Westin St. Francis.

China-based Dalian Wanda Group, which acquired an 8-acre Beverly Hills site next to the Beverly Hilton for about $420 million in 2014, is looking to sell that property, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this week. Dalian Wanda Group had intended to build a $1.2 billion hotel-luxury condominium complex on the site.