Some top hotels could change hands in one of the decade’s biggest stock flotations

New York-based Blackstone Grouphas hired banks to lead an initial public offering (IPO) of its Hilton Worldwide hotel chains in what will be an exit from one of the largest-ever leveraged buyout deals.

The group owns or operates six hotels in Ireland – all in Dublin.

Blackstone took Hilton private in 2007 in a $26.7bn (€19.9bn) deal financed by debt secured at cheap rates at the very top of the debt market bubble.

The business has continued to grow since then, including last year’s €67m acquisition of Ireland’s biggest hotel, the Burlington in leafy Dublin 4, last November.

In Dublin the Hilton Group also owns a share of the four-star Conrad Hotel just off Stephen’s Green.

The Hilton Group has contracts to operate the city’s three Hilton branded hotels at Charlemont, Kilmainham and at Dublin Airport, but sold the buildings themselves during the years of the property boom.