With the transaction complete, Fairmont's common shares will cease to be listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange. At the end of trading Thursday, Fairmont's share price stood at $49.29.

Kingdom Hotels is run by billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a global investor with a large stake in Citigroup Inc. and the nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. Colony Capital is a private Los Angeles-based investment firm. The deal was first announced in January.

Kingdom and its affiliates already owned 3,875,000 common shares of Fairmont, which equated to about 4.4% of Fairmont's outstanding shares. In accepting the offer by Kingdom and Colony, Fairmont's board of directors rejected a $40-per-share partial takeover bid of Carl Icahn, who held a 9% stake in the company.

Last year, Colony Capital bought the hotel business of Raffles Holdings for $859 million. Prince Alwaleed's other hotel holdings include direct ownership interests in 25 properties and investments in Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts and Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts.

Kingdom and Colony plan to merge the operations of Fairmont and Raffles, though both will continue to be headquartered in Toronto and Singapore, respectively. Raffles owns and manages a portfolio of 33 properties located primarily across Asia and Europe. The combined portfolio will total 120 hotels in 24 countries.

Instant Insights /

Kingdom, Colony Close on Fairmont Acquisition

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