Hilton would pay Blackstone break-up fee

A general view of the Hilton hotel in the Universal City area of Los Angeles July 3, 2007. Hilton Hotels Corp. said on Thursday that it must pay Blackstone Group $560 million if it receives a better offer and terminates a takeover agreement with the private equity firm.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hilton Hotels Corp. HLT.N said on Thursday that it would pay Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) $560 million if it receives a better offer and terminates a takeover agreement with the private equity company.

Blackstone, which agreed to buy Hilton for about $20 billion plus debt, would pay Hilton $660 million if it backs out of the deal, Hilton said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Break-up fees are customary in takeover deals and are put in place to dissuade the two sides from walking away.

In the filing, Hilton said Blackstone received financing commitments from a group of banks including Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. BSC.N, Bank of America Corp .(BAC.N), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS.N), and Morgan Stanley (MS.N). The filing doesn't detail the amount of debt that would be used to finance the deal.

On Tuesday, Blackstone agreed to buy Hilton, the No. 2 U.S. hotel operator, for $47.50 a share in the biggest private equity buyout in the hotel industry.

The offer is about 26 percent above Hilton's 25-year high of $37.82, which it hit on February 22.

Hilton's shares jumped 26 percent to $45.47 on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday.

(Reporting by Chris Reiter)