Starwood Lodging May Buy Westin This Week

Starwood Lodging Trust, the nation’s largest hotel real estate investment trust, may agree to buy Westin Hotels & Resorts this week, people familiar with the talks said. Seattle-based Westin could fetch as much as $1.5 billion in a sale, analysts said. Buying Westin would give Starwood Lodging a well-known upscale hotel brand to affix to its string of more than 100 hotels. Starwood Lodging wants its own brand to save costly franchisee fees it pays for other hotel flags. Westin is owned by a partnership led by Goldman, Sachs & Co. and real estate investment fund Starwood Capital Group. Starwood Lodging Chairman and Chief Executive Barry Sternlicht also heads Greenwich, Conn.-based Starwood Capital.