US-based Hilton Hotels Corporation (HHC) has reportedly held talks with investment group Blackstone regarding the sale of a large part of the £2bn (US$3.5bn, 2.9bn euro) property assets it will acquire through its deal with the UK-based hotel and gaming operator Hilton Group.

The £3.3bn (US$5.7bn, 4.8bn euro) sale of Hilton Group’s hotels division to HHC is expected to complete next month.

Prior to the deal, HHC operated the Hilton brand in the US while Hilton International, an operating division of the Hilton Group, owned the rights to the Hilton brand name throughout the rest of the world.

Following deal completion, Hilton Group will be renamed Ladbrokes and become a standalone FTSE 100 company, valued at an estimated £4bn.

While a spokesperson for HHC confirmed that talks with various groups had occurred as part of an ongoing property asset sale scheme, they refuted the claim that the group was either accelerating or increasing its asset sale plans and would not confirm that the Blackstone meeting had occurred.

However, according to The Times, although HHC will encourage wider interest to ensure that it gets the best price, Blackstone is one of the few investors with the funding to enter such a deal.

Meanwhile, HHC has announced that it is to introduce a new luxury hotel brand based upon the US Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York.

The Waldorf-Astoria Collection will initially consist of three HHC resort properties, the Grand Wailea in Hawaii, the Biltmore in Arizona and California’s La Quinta, as well as the New York Waldorf-Astoria itself.

• Elsewhere, there has been speculation that Whitbread and Marriott International have chosen an Israeli lawyer as the preferred bidder in a £1bn deal for their UK hotel joint venture which totals 46 hotels.

It is understood that the deal would involve the sale of underlying property assets, with Marriott continuing to operate the hotels under a long-term management contract. Details: www.hilton.com

Photograph: Waldorf-Astoria New York