Blackstone and Hilton: the 2007 buyout and the $14 billion exit

Blackstone took Hilton private in 2007 in a $26 billion leveraged buyout, and when it sold its last Hilton shares in May 2018 it stood to make more than $14 billion, which Bloomberg and trade press called the most profitable private equity deal on record. The deal is also the reason Christopher Nassetta runs Hilton today and Jonathan Gray chairs its board.

The 2007 buyout

Blackstone began pursuing Hilton in 2006 under the code name Project Murphy. Jonathan Gray, then running its real estate business and now Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer, arranged the deal. The purchase price was $26 billion, with Blackstone’s real estate and private equity funds and some co-investors putting in about $6.5 billion of equity, the rest borrowed. A second report gives the equity as $5.6 billion. At the time it was the largest cheque Blackstone had written.

Gray recruited Christopher Nassetta, who was appointed president and chief executive on 29 October 2007, shortly after the deal closed.

The financial crisis

The timing was poor. During the financial crisis Blackstone wrote down its Hilton investment by about 70%. According to press accounts it then put in more cash and restructured Hilton’s debt rather than let the company default.

The 2013 IPO and the sell-down

Hilton returned to public markets in an initial public offering in December 2013. It was priced at $20 a share and raised about $2.35 billion, the largest hotel IPO on record, according to the reports reviewed. In 2017 Hilton spun off Park Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Grand Vacations as separate companies.

Blackstone sold its Hilton shares gradually. Between 2014 and 2018 it carried out 12 separate transactions. The last one, reported on 21 May 2018, was the sale of its remaining 15.8 million shares, worth about $1.3 billion at the $83.57 price on 18 May. Hilton received no proceeds, although it planned to buy 1.25 million of the shares itself. The sale ended an 11-year holding and, as reported, more than tripled Blackstone’s money.

What Hilton looked like afterwards

Under Nassetta, Hilton grew from about 3,700 properties to more than 7,600 across 126 countries and territories and was named the number one World’s Best Workplace by Fortune and Great Place to Work. Gray stayed on as chairman of the board. For 2025 Hilton reported net income of $1,461 million and ended the year with a development pipeline of 520,500 rooms across 3,703 hotels, and it runs its Middle East and Africa operations from a regional hub in Dubai.