COMPANIES Speculation that Sam Zell, the Chicago property tycoon, may be positioning himself for a takeover bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts – owner of the Sheraton, St Regis, Le Meridien, Westin and W hotel brands – pushed the company’s shares up by more than 16 per cent in trading in New York on Friday.
Starwood, one of the world’s largest hotel operators with 897 properties, revealed in a filing on December 31 after stock markets closed that it had entered into a confidentiality agreement with Mr Zell’s Equity Group to notify it of any asset sale or takeover offer. Equity Group, which is one of Starwood’s largest investors, disclosed last year that it owned 14.75m shares, about 8 per cent of the company.
