Dec 9, 2013

A look at what’s coming up on the East Coast and around the world. This week, that includes an IPO by Hilton, the release of quarterly economic data and the auction of some royal artifacts. It also includes remembrance of the Sandy Hook shootings.

: People walk by the Millenium Hilton on December 3, 2013 in New York City. In a highly anticipated IPO filing scheduled for this week, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT) plans to raise as much as $2.4 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, the most ever for a hotel company. Blackstone Group LP took Hilton private in 2007 for $26.7 billion, one of the largest leveraged buyouts prior to the 2008 global financial crisis. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

: Wearing their traditional costumes Turkmen elders gather for their meeting in this October file photo. Turkmenistan is scheduled on December 15 to elect representatives in its national assembly.

: Comedian Dave Chappelle, is scheduled to make a rare appearance in Miami Beach this week, according to the Miami Herald.

: A handout reproduction picture released by Dominic Winter Auctioneers on December 4, 2013 shows a signed photograph of the then Princess Elizabeth (R) (now Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret (L) in the play Aladdin at the Royal School in Windsor in 1943. A historic archive including over a dozen signed photographs relating to four Royal pantomimes produced at Windsor Castle during the second world war is expected to fetch over 16,000 GBP when it is auctioned in thirty-six lots by Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Gloucestershire on December 11, 2013. ” AFP PHOTO / DOMINIC WINTER AUCTIONEERS

: A picture taken on November 13, 2013 shows radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada arriving at his home in northwest London after he was released from prison. Qatada, deported by Britain in July after a near decade-long legal battle, is to go on trial in Jordan on December 10, judicial sources said on December 3, 2013. AFP PHOTO / ANDREW COWIE

: A man uses an empty public pay phone booth to shield himself from street noise while making a call with his mobile phone, in New York, in this April 9, 2012 file photo. The plain old telephone network is rapidly being overtaken in the United States by new technology, putting regulators in a quandary over how to manage the shift. The Federal Communications Commission said it will discuss proposals at its December 12 meeting, with the aim of drafting order in January to formalize the “IP transition,” or switching communications systems to Internet protocol. It’s not clear how or when the FCC would phase out the remnants of the telephone network, and what it would mean for roughly 100 million Americans who still rely on the dated by still-functional system of copper wires and switching stations. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, confirmed just last month to head the regulatory agency, said the technological advance “is a good thing,” adding that “history has shown that new networks catalyze innovation, investment, ideas, and ingenuity.” AFP/Getty Images file photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND

: Lawmakers in Uruguay are studying a bill to legalize on December 10 the cultivation of marijuana and allow limited personal consumption of it — which if passed, will have authorities controlling its quality and the amount used. MIGUEL ROJO/AFP/Getty Images

: Ukraine has plans this week to sign a contract on reverse gas supplies via Slovakia in 2014, says Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytsky, pictured in this file photo. He told reporters in Beijing about the plans last week, according to The Kiev Post. MYKHAYLO MARKIV/AFP/Getty Images

: School workers use their mobile phones to take pictures of Chilean presidential candidate Evelyn Matthei (not pictured) during a visit to a school in Lampa rural town, some 38 km north of Santiago, December 3, 2013. Chileans are going to the polls on December 15 in a runoff presidential election. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

: The federal government releases its quarterly report on Manufacturing, Mining, Wholesale Trade and Selected Service Industries December 9. Pictured in this 2010 file photo is the Cumberland mine in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Laurence Kesterson/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT

: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to visit Tehran December 11, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency. They are expected to discuss shared regional interests.

: A pedestrian walks past an advertisement reading “Member Vote” to promote the voting for a coalition between the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin. SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel has urged the party’s 474,000 members to vote for a coalition agreement. The results of the ballot will be known on December 14. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

: Lawyers chant anti-Musharraf slogans during a protest against Pakistan’s then sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in Lahore in this February 29, 2008 file photo. Pakistan’s pugnacious chief justice is due to retire on December 12 and wary government officials are counting the days until he hands over an invigorated Supreme Court to a more conciliatory successor. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza

: Libyan Oil Minister Abdelbari al-Arusi smiles as he arrives for a meeting of OPEC oil ministers at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna December 4, 2013. Libya hopes to reopen all its oil ports on December 10 and resume full production a week after that, Arusi said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

: A woman looks out of a bus window at a man climbing on the outside of the vehicle, in Sevare January 26, 2013. Mali is scheduled to hold a second round of elections for its national assembly on December 15. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

: Vince Young — shown here during his time as a quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles — is suing a former financial advisor, alleging fraud during a 2011 lockout. Testimony in the case will start this week, according to the Houston Chronicle. File photo by Michael Kubel // The Morning Call

: The Volcker rule – named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, shown here in 2005 – is the last major piece of unfinished business in the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, which aims to prevent a repeat of the 2008 taxpayer bail-out of Wall Street. The U.S. Federal Reserve and two other finance watchdogs – out of a total of five who need to approve the rule – said on Tuesday they planned to hold public meetings on December 10, in line with what some of them had signaled. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

: On December 14, 2012, more than two dozen people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Commemorations of the killings will include vigils across the country. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

(Reuters) – Hilton Worldwide Inc said its initial public offering would raise up to $2.37 billion in the biggest-ever hotel IPO, more than doubling Blackstone Group LP’s investment.

According to reports last week, Hilton is expected to launch its initial public offering this month and the sale of about 11.5 percent of its shares would value the company at up to $32.5 billion, including debt.

Blackstone took Hilton private in 2007 for $26.7 billion, including debt, in one of the largest leveraged buyouts before the 2008 global financial crisis.

Blackstone has invested in total about $6.4 billion in Hilton and its 76.2 percent stake after the IPO would be worth up to $15.7 billion.

Its private equity and real estate funds, which provided the equity for the leveraged buyout in 2007, are not selling any shares in the IPO. A Blackstone debt fund has registered to sell Hilton shares in the IPO equivalent to a roughly 0.5 percent stake, according to a regulatory filing.

“The Blackstone Group has timed the Hilton IPO at the perfect market inflection points of increasing global consumer travel demand, daily room rates, and occupancy,” said Christopher Muller, a professor at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, speaking last week.

The U.S. hotel industry has been recovering with room rates and occupancy levels expected to increase in 2014, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Dow Jones U.S. Hotels index has risen 30 percent so far this year.

Hilton’s IPO will be the second-biggest IPO in 2013, behind oil pipeline holding company Plains GP Holdings LP , which raised $2.82 billion.

Continue reading December 2 Reuters story

(Additional editing by Baltimore Sun staff)

The week ahead: December 9-15

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