This is the end of a drama that has been shaking up the American hotel industry for almost a year. Launched into a hostile takeover bid by its competitor Wyndham, Choice Hotels has thrown in the gloves on the expiry of its unsolicited share exchange offer. Wyndham's CEO, Geoff Ballotti, was delighted: " We would like to thank our shareholders and franchisees for their continued support, and our team members for their dedication and focus throughout this process." .
Discussions between the two parties began in April 2023In October, Wyndham's board of directors rejected an offer of nearly 8 billion dollars, which they considered to be a very reasonable price. "disappointing" . Since then, Wyndham had spared no effort to avoid this outcomeHe urged shareholders to avoid making "the wrong choice". For his part, Patrick Pacious, CEO of Choice Hotels, said he was convinced that such a merger was "the right choice". in everyone's interest "This would accelerate the organic growth of Choice and Wyndham over the long term.
At the beginning of 2024, after having further increased its offer, Choice Hotels had decided to continue its offensive, intending to propose at the next general meeting of the group the appointment of " eight independent and highly qualified directors" all obviously in favour of the merger. Last peckswan song? Clearly, this solution did not convince the majority. although the support given by Wyndham shareholders to the exchange offer was significant given the number of investors structurally prevented from participating at this stage" Choice Hotels stressed in its announcement that it was withdrawing its proposal.
Such a merger between two heavyweights in the hotel industry - the two largest franchisors in the world - would have given birth to a group roughly the same size as the current world leader Marriott. With nearly 875,000 rooms for Wyndham and more than 625,000 for Choice, the combined total would have amounted to 1.5 million rooms worldwide, most of them in the United States. Among other things, this would enable Choice to expand its international footprint, which is smaller than that of its competitor.
The two parties will now continue to go their separate ways each on their ownChoice is concentrating on its own future, while Wyndham is pleased to be able to get back to executing its strategic plan. without the unnecessary distractions associated with this situation and the disruption to our activities " .
