Hilton Worldwide, the international hotel chain, has raised $2.35 billion (£1.4 billion) in a sale of shares. The money will be used to pay off some of the group’s debt.

The sale is the second-largest listing in the US this year and the largest by a hotel company. It returns Hilton to public ownership after being bought by Blackstone Group in 2007 in one of the largest leveraged buyouts ever made.