CHICAGO, Aug. 30 Goldman Sachs, the investment giant, and heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton plan a joint billion-dollar investment in the Global Hyatt hotel chain.
The money, which buys Goldman and the Waltons a minority share in Hyatt, will go primarily to Chicago's Prizker family to settle a bitter dispute, the Chicago Tribune said Thursday.
The deal has no effect on Hyatt's plan to go public, Chairman Tom Pritzker said in an interview. Hyatt has been preparing in recent years for a public stock offering but no date has been firmed up, the company said in a release.
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Madrone Capital Partners, associated with the Walton family, will each pay Hyatt $500 million, the newspaper said. Pritzker indicated that the investment allows Hyatt, which manages roughly 735 hotels and resorts in 44 countries, to continue growing while planning to divvy up assets.
The Pritzker family wrangled for years over a breakup of the clan's sprawling $15 billion business empire.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
