Hilton Rides Again

Hotelman Conrad Hilton, who hates to pass up a good deal, last week was busy roping still another hotel into his bulging corral. Hilton announced that he had bought Houston's lavish (TV, air conditioning, Muzak, a 165-ft. swimming pool), 1,100-room Shamrock Hotel, opened in 1949 by Wildcatter Glenn McCarthy. The seller was the Equitable Life Assurance Society, which took over the $21 million hotel in 1952 as part payment on a defaulted $34 million loan to McCarthy Oil & Gas Corp. Equitable's price to Hilton: $18 million, including $7,000,000 for 500 surrounding acres of land.

The Shamrock brings busy Connie Hilton's string to 19 hotels with 18,344 rooms in the U.S. and abroad. He has five more hotels abuilding (Havana, Beverly Hills, Mexico City, Acapulco, Istanbul), and three others in the planning stage (Rome, Cairo, London). But Connie Hilton is not ready to settle back just yet. Though Hilton is not talking, rumors are buzzing that he is in a hot bidding battle with Real-Estate Operator William Zeckendorf (see below) for control of the $67 million Statler chain of eight big U.S. hotels. Zeckendorf has already bid $50 a share for Statler's outstanding stock. Hilton's reported offer: two shares of Hilton stock (latest price: $27) for each share of Statler stock (about $46).

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