Hilton Worldwide moves to welcome guests via IPO

The Blackstone Group is reportedly moving to publicly list its Hilton Worldwide hotel chain.

Hilton has hired four banks — Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley to underwrite the anticipated initial public offering and help refinance around US$13 billion in debt.

Chris Snow, an analyst at CreditSights Inc., told the Wall Street Journal that an IPO could be a "multibillion-dollar" transaction.

It reports the IPO could happen in the early months of next year.

Founded in 1919, Hilton has recovered after a difficult financial crisis for commercial property.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Blackstone once had an on-paper loss of two-thirds of its US$6 billion investment in Hilton.

But its forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for 2013 are reportedly 58% higher than in 2009.

Blackstone bought Hilton six years ago for US$26.7 billion - one of the largest leveraged buyouts preceding the 2008 global financial crisis, according to Reuters.