Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. announced today that it has completed the previously announced sale of the Hotel Principe di Savoia to the London-based Dorchester Group Ltd. for 275 million Euros or approximately $315 million. The property has been sold unencumbered.

"The Hotel Principe di Savoia is a wonderful hotel and we are grateful to our teams who have run it for so many years," said Barry S. Sternlicht, Starwood's Chairman and CEO. "We are glad to have completed this transaction at an attractive price for our shareholders while at the same time ensuring that this legendary hotel will be in excellent hands with its new owner. Starwood will continue to have a strong presence in Milan with two other wonderful hotels, the Diana Majestic and the Westin Palace to compliment our twenty-three other majestic Italian properties such as the Hotel Gritti Palace, Hotel Danieli and The Westin Excelsior in Rome and Florence."

The sale of The Hotel Principe di Savoia comes on the heels of the sale of the company's Costa Smeralda, Sardinia hotels for $340 million. Sternlicht says Starwood also expects to close its sale of a multi-hotel portfolio in North America during the third quarter and an additional four-hotel portfolio sale in North America in the balance of the year. Proceeds from these four sales will total approximately $1.1 billion and will be used to pay down existing debt and for other general corporate uses.