Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced that it has reached a definitive agreement with Host Hotels & Resorts for the sale of the 301-room Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort, the 668-room Grand Hyatt San Francisco, and the 454-room Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa for approximately $1.0 billion.

Hyatt will continue to manage the three hotels under long-term management agreements. The transaction is expected to close near the end of March 2018.

Mark S. Hoplamazian, president and chief executive officer of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, said: “This agreement demonstrates the value of our owned and leased hotels and strengthens our longstanding and valued business relationship with Host. The completion of this transaction not only allows Hyatt to maintain our brand presence in these key markets with great brand representation, but also supports the execution of our recently announced initiative to reduce real-estate ownership as part of our broader capital strategy to unlock shareholder value.”

Two of the three hotels, Andaz Maui and Grand Hyatt San Francisco, reflect a combined attributed sale value of approximately $800 million and form part of Hyatt’s ongoing $1.5 billion permanent sell-down programme. The sale of Hyatt Regency Coconut Point attributed a value of approximately $200 million.

With the completion of this transaction, Hyatt is increasing its 2018 guidance for return of capital to shareholders to a minimum of $500 million from the previous guidance of at least $300 million. Hyatt intends to provide a full update to the 2018 outlook including the impact of these transactions and the new revenue recognition accounting standard with its first-quarter earnings release in May. - TradeArabia News Service