Investors Bid to Privatize Hotelier

TORONTO -- Companies owned by Bill Gates and a Saudi prince announced Monday that they had joined forces with the founder and chief executive of Canadian hotel giant Four Seasons Hotels Inc. in a bid to take the company private for $3.7 billion, or $82 per share in cash.

The offer was made by Four Seasons chairman and chief executive Isadore Sharp -- who founded the company in 1960 with one small hotel in downtown Toronto -- and Triples Holdings Ltd., the controlling shareholder, along with Kingdom Hotels International and Gates's Cascade Investment LLC.

Kingdom Hotels is owned by a trust created by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, thought to be the wealthiest Muslim businessman. A nephew of the late King Fahd, Prince Alwaleed is worth more than $20 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Four Seasons of Toronto said it has set up a special committee of independent directors to consider the offer and make recommendations.

"This transaction is intended to ensure the legacy of the Four Seasons," Sharp said in a teleconference. "This proposal achieves all my objectives for Four Seasons and my family, and is the only one that I am prepared to pursue."

Almost 21 percent of the limited voting shares are held by the Kingdom group. Joining it in the bid to buy out other stockholders is Cascade, an entity owned by Gates, co-founder of the world's largest software company. It owns about 8 percent of Four Seasons shares.

Calls to Microsoft were not returned, nor were calls to the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which owns 44,211 shares.

Sharp and Triples agreed that Kingdom and Cascade would acquire the limited voting shares of Four Seasons for $82 per share, a 28.4 percent premium over the company's Friday closing price of $63.87 on the New York Stock Exchange. Triples, which is the Sharp family's holding company, would keep its Four Seasons investment.

Shares of Four Seasons jumped $18.63, or 29 percent, to close at $82.50 Monday.

Sharp would remain Four Seasons chairman and chief executive, continuing to direct all aspects of day-to-day operations and strategic direction of the company, which would remain headquartered in Toronto.

If the deal closes, Sharp would receive $288 million in proceeds related to a long-term incentive agreement.

The transaction is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

The hotel chain has 71 hotels in 31 countries and more than 25 properties under development.