US private equity group Blackstone has taken control of Mint Hotels, a family run UK hotel chain. The purchase price said to be around £600 mln (EUR 687 mln).

Blackstone, which already owns the Hilton International hotel chain, is buying Mint's seven four-star hotels in the British cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and London, as well as one asset in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam hotel opened in June this year and offers 553 rooms.

Mint was founded by Sandy and David Orr and Donald MacDonald with Bill Crerar as City Inn in 1995 and was rebranded as Mint Hotel last year. The hotel chain employs more than 1,500 people.

The sale, handled by JP Morgan Cazenove, is understood to include about £570 mln of debt at Mint.

Blackstone bought the Hilton hotel chain for around $26 bn back in 2007.