BETHESDA, Maryland--RLJ Lodging Trust announced it has priced its initial public offering of 27,500,000 common shares of beneficial interest, $0.01 par value per share, at $18.00 per share, for total gross proceeds of $495.0 million.
The offering is expected to close on May 16, 2011. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 4,125,000 share to cover overallotments, if any. All the shares are being sold by the Company. The common shares of RLJ Lodging Trust are scheduled to begin trading on May 11, 2011, on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "RLJ."
RLJ will contribute the net proceeds of the offering to its operating partnership. The company intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to reduce outstanding indebtedness and to pay other related transaction costs.
BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as the joint book-running managers for the offering. Deutsche Bank Securities and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are acting as senior co-managers and KeyBanc Capital Markets, Raymond James and RBC Capital Markets are acting as co-managers.