Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc is back, and in a big way.
The hotelier, which went private in 2007, on Wednesday priced its initial public offering (IPO) at US$20 per share. The company and a shareholder are selling 117.6 million shares, about 5 million more than originally planned, for a total take of US$2.35 billion.
The payoff surpasses the US$2.1 billion generated by Twitter Inc’s initial public offering last month. If the banks involved buy the extra shares in the deal — the overallotment — it will be the second-biggest IPO of the year, behind Plains GP Holdings LP at US$2.9 billion.
Hilton is the world’s largest hotel group, with 665,667 rooms across 90 countries and territories. It traces its roots back to 1919 and claims it was the site for a number of historical events, including John Lennon’s penning of one of his most popular songs in New York and the creation of the pina colada in Puerto Rico.
The Hilton IPO is also the largest hotel initial public offering ever, according to Morningstar analyst Chad Mollman.
The offering would give Hilton a total market value of US$19.7 billion. That tops rivals Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc, each with market capitalizations of US$13.8 billion as of the close of trading on Wednesday.
Last year, Hilton had US$9.3 billion in revenue and posted a profit of $359 million.
The company was bought out by the Blackstone Group in 2007 for US$25 billion. Blackstone plans to retain a 76.2 percent controlling stake in the firm after the IPO.
The stock was to open for trading yesterday under “HLT” on the New York Stock Exchange.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”