Bass mulls Wyndham bid

May 18, 2001
Web posted at: 0837 GMT

LONDON (CNN) -- UK leisure group Bass is mulling a $4 billion bid for U.S. hotel chain Wyndham International to boost its upscale presence in the Americas.

Bass, owner of  the Holiday Inn and Inter-Continental brands, bought the Posthouse chain for £810 million ($1.2 billion) last month and is looking for acquisitions after selling its beer unit, the Financial Times reported.

A Bass source told CNN that the company "was looking to expand its upscale brand in continental Europe and Americas and Wyndham would be a good fit."

Bass declined to comment on its interest in Wyndham. A Wyndham spokesman told the FT it did not comment on market speculation.

Consolidation in the hotel industry has accelerated, with Japanese bank Nomura buying UK Compass's (CPG) Meridien chain and Felcor Lodging Trust (FCH: Research, Estimates) of the U.S. announcing a $2.7billion bid for MeriStar MeriStar Hospitality Corp. (MHX: Research, Estimates) Hospitality in the past month.

An agreement, however, is not certain to succeed, the report said. Wyndham has not put itself up for sale, and some of its big shareholders  believe it would be better pursuing a strategy of reducing debt.

Wyndham, based in Dallas, has a market value of under $390 million but has $3 billion of debt. It expects to have earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $640 million this year, the report said.

The former real estate investment trust has operations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe.

It has 176 owned and leased hotels with about 45,500 rooms, as well as managing 35 hotels and franchising another 30 properties.

Wyndham said 10 days ago it had "several transactions in various stages of negotiation and remains on track to meet its goal of $500 million in non-strategic asset sales for 2001."

Bass is also understood to have looked at Westmont, another U.S. hotel group.

Wyndham taps new CEO – March 27, 2000

Nomura wins Bass pubs – Feb. 14, 2001

Bass
Wyndham International

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