Four Seasons Hotels, the manager of 74 luxury properties, announced yesterday that it had received a $3.7-billion bid to be taken private by its chief executive officer in cooperation with Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates and Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal.

Gates’ Cascade Investments LLC and Alwaleed offered $82 a share in cash, Four Seasons said in a statement. Isadore Sharp, who would remain chairman and chief executive officer of the Toronto-based company, would receive $288 million from the deal.

The transaction “is the only one I am prepared to pursue,” said Sharp, who opened the first Four Seasons hotel in 1961 in Toronto. The company’s shares rose more than the offer price on speculation Four Seasons will get a higher bid.

The offer represents a 28.4-percent premium over the company’s Friday closing price of $63.87. The stock jumped $18.63, or 29 percent a share, to close at $82.50 in trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, a signal that the final price paid for the luxury chain might be even higher than the current offer.

Kingdom Hotels is owned by a trust created by Alwaleed, said to be the wealthiest businessman in the Muslim world. A nephew of the late King Fahd, Alwaleed is worth more than $20 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Almost 21 percent of the limited voting shares are held by the Kingdom group. Joining them in the bid to buy out other stockholders is Cascade, an entity owned by Gates, cofounder of the world’s largest software company. It owns about 8 percent of Four Seasons shares.

Calls to Microsoft for comment were not returned; as well as calls to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which owns 44,211 shares.

Gates and Alwaleed “share my long-term vision and commitment to this company,” Sharp said, and the deal provides a significant premium to minority shareholders as well as “continuity and stability for our hotel owners, customers and employees for the long term.”

Hotel companies have become takeover targets as real estate prices in the world’s largest cities rise and the cost of new construction soars. An investment group owned by the government of Dubai is purchasing Travelodge Hotels Ltd. for $1.3 billion, while Blackstone Group LP has raised $5.25 billion to buy hotels and other properties.

The offer came after Four Seasons shares rose 18 percent in the 12 months through last week. That trails InterContinental Hotels Group Plc’s 22 percent increase and a 35 percent gain at Marriott International, owner of the Ritz-Carlton brand.

With Associated Press reports