Wyndham International, Inc. (NYSE:WYN) today announced that it has sold minority partnership interests in seven Marriott branded hotels to Host Marriott Corporation (NYSE:HMT) at a cash price of approximately $60 million plus the release of certain operating obligations that were held by Wyndham prior to the close of the transaction.

Under the terms of the transaction, Host Marriott will remain the managing general partner of each of the seven properties, either as wholly owned entities or as part of a partnership. None of the hotels involved in the transaction were controlled or operated by Wyndham International.

“We are very pleased to have completed this transaction, which will further improve our balance sheet while bringing us another important step closer to our goal of being a proprietary branded operating company, focused solely on the Wyndham brand,” stated Fred J. Kleisner, chairman and chief executive officer of Wyndham International.

Wyndham has previously announced its goal to divest $500 million in non-strategic properties during 2001. Prior to the Host Marriott sales announced today, the company had sold eight hotels and one non-EBITDA producing asset. These sales, combined with the transaction announced today, total approximately $194 million. The proceeds from these sales will be used to reduce debt.

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