Hotel buzz

Here is an interesting speculative piece from Bloomberg on Starwood Hotels:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-16/starwood-hotels-is-giving-activists-reason-to-check-in-real-m-a

I'm highlighting the Bloomberg piece because ultimately it might have significant implications for a rather large hotel company listed in London - InterContinental Hotels Group.

In fact, there has been plenty of gossip doing the rounds in the London market recently that Senator, the hedge fund that Bloomberg talks about in its piece, might push for Starwood hotels to merge with FTSE 100-listed InterContinental once the US-listed company spins off its timeshare division.

However, I couldn't/can't stand this tale up, so thus far I have decided against publishing anything on the topic. Now, though, that Bloomberg has decided to run something, I thought it might be worthwhile throwing in my two pennies worth.

Remember, InterContinental already has a an activist shareholder, Marcato, that has been pushing for something to happen while Mark Kleinman of Sky News revealed last year that the hotel giant rebuffed a secret £6 billion takeover bid. Here is a link to Kleinman's article:

http://news.sky.com/story/1268257/intercontinental-rebuffs-secret-6bn-us-bid

Something to ruminate on over the weekend, perhaps...