LRG set to sell remaining bulk of IHG portfolio: The bidding war for the 22-asset, United Kingdom hotel platform LTG Acquisition is heating up, with Starwood Capital, Apollo Global Management and London & Regional all having made offers on a portfolio thought to be worth £1 billion ($1.5 billion), according to The London Times. The portfolio—which consists of 19 Holiday Inn hotels and three Crowne Plaza hotels—consists of almost 6,000 keys and includes London’s 906-room Holiday Inn Kensington Forum at Heathrow Airport.
The sale of the portfolio, which the article stated had an annual turnover of more than £200 million ($308.4 million), is being conducted by Eastdil Securities on behalf of owners Realstar Group; GIC Real Estate, part of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund; and Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners, which formed LRG in 2004 to buy 73 properties branded under the umbrella of InterContinental Hotels Group (the parent of both Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, as well as other brands) for more than£1 billion ($1.5 billion), according to Travel Weekly U.K. LRG already has sold a number of those 73 assets, including the sale of 19 Holiday Inns to Kew Green Hotels (which itself is now owned by HK CTS Metropark Hotels Company Limited) for approximately £70 million ($107.9 million) and the sale of 18 to Cerberus Capital Management for £225 million ($346.9 million).
Wyndham in new $350-million funding round: Wyndham Worldwide Corporation has revealed the pricing of its latest public offering, for “$350 million aggregate principal amount of its senior unsecured notes due 2025.” The notes offering, due to close 15 September, would fund the “repayment, redemption, repurchase, defeasance or other retirement of certain outstanding indebtedness, including commercial paper and debt outstanding under its revolving credit facility, and for general corporate purposes.”
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC; Goldman, Sachs & Co.; and Merrill Lynch, Pierce Fenner & Smith are to manage the notes offering, which would bear interest at the rate of 5.1% per year, according to a news release.
Singapore REIT buys Cambridge, UK, property: Singapore-based, publicly listed real estate investment trust CDL Hospitality Trusts has bought its first European investment: the 198-room Cambridge City Hotel in the university town of Cambridge, England, according to a press release from the trust.
The deal made through an indirect wholly owned subsidiary, CDL HBT Cambridge City (UK), saw 100% of the issued share capital of LR (Cambridge) from London & Regional Group Trading No.3, and for a price tag of £62.5 million ($135.8 million), which included a payment of approximately £1 million ($1.5 million), based on the estimated net working capital and cash of the target at the time of completion. The buy will be fully funded initially by British pound sterling denominated debt, and on completion of the acquisition—expected on or around 1 October—CDL Hospitality Trusts’ gearing will increase from 32% to 35.8%.
Swiss International to develop five in Taiwan: Swiss International Hotels has signed a franchise agreement with Taiwan-based, publicly listed YOKO International Corporation to, in the initial agreement, to develop five properties on the Asian island, according to a news release.
All to open in the next five years, the first property will be a 270-key hotel in the high-tech development zone of Hsinchu, west of Taiwanese capital Taipei, and which is scheduled to open in 2017.
Comfort gets more comfortable for nonsmokers: Choice Hotels International announced its chain Comfort Inn is to follow the lead of its Comfort Suites brand by implementing a 100% smoke-free policy beginning next July across all of its 1,700 properties, according to a news release that added Comfort Inn would “become the largest hotel brand to provide a smoke-free environment.”
Anne Smith, VP of brand strategy for Choice Hotels, said of the decision that “we learned a lot about attitudes toward non-smoking policies at hotels and found that … smokers themselves are more likely to choose 100% smoke-free accommodations.”
Compiled by Terence Baker.