Wyndham To Sell European Vacation Rental Unit To Platinum Equity For $1.3 Bln

(RTTNews) - Wyndham Worldwide Corp. (WYN) said that it agreed to sell its European vacation rental business to Platinum Equity for approximately $1.3 billion.

In conjunction with the sale, the European vacation rental business has entered into a 20-year agreement under which it will pay a royalty fee of 1% of net revenue to Wyndham's hotel business for the right to use the by Wyndham Vacation Rentals endorser brand. The European vacation rentals operations will also participate as a redemption partner in the award-winning Wyndham Rewards® loyalty program.

Wyndham Worldwide estimates that the tax obligations associated with the sale of the European Rental brands will be less than 15% of the proceeds. The Company expects to use the net proceeds from the sale for general corporate purposes, which may include debt repayment and/or funding of its recently announced acquisition of La Quinta Holdings' hotel franchising and management businesses.

Wyndham Worldwide's planned spin-off of Wyndham Hotel Group remains on track for an expected distribution in the second quarter of 2018.