Hotel Investment Activities for the Week

This week, we look into some more companies that have participated in hotel developments and funding opportunities worldwide.

Chatham Lodging rises in 1st trading day on NYSE
Shares of Chatham Lodging Trust listed on 16th of April, their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The Palm Beach, Fla.-based real estate investment trust had priced 7.5 million shares of its initial public offering at $20 each, raising $150 million.
Chatham, formed to invest in hotels, plans to use about half of its net IPO proceeds, $73.5 million, to buy six Homewood Suites by Hilton Hotels. The rest of the funds are intended for future hotel investments.
The share rose slightly, and it’s a fantastic news as it is one of the very first REITs in the hotel sector admitted onto NYSE after almost 12 months of flat activities in the corporate market for real estate companies.
Chatham Lodging is likely to become a new investment partner in the Florida area, its focus are mainly into family hotels like Homewood Suites, but may invest in other types as well.

Qatar SWF buys top hotel in Singapore
QATAR'S sovereign wealth fund Qatari Diar has struck a US$847 million (S$1.2 billion) deal with luxury hotel chain Fairmont Raffles.
The wealth fund is acquiring a 40 per cent stake in the hotel chain and taking possession of one of its hotels in Singapore, either the Raffles Hotel, Fairmont Singapore or Swissotel The Stamford.
Fairmont Raffles has about 100 hotels operating under the three brands of Raffles, Fairmont and Swissotel. The deal also aligns Fairmont Raffles with cash-rich investors in the hotel property sector amid plans to take the company public in two to three years.
Qatar’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) has replaced UAE’s SWF as the most active SWF in the real estate sectors from Middle East, the fund has also indicated its intention to further invest into projects across Asia, especially SE Asia and China, however, the fund tends to focus on existing and large transactions.
Typical investments are from US$500 million, although some investments made were around US$100m as well.

Hotel Investor & Management Profile: Interstate Hotels & Resorts

Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of a 50/50 joint venture between subsidiaries of Thayer Lodging and Jin Jiang, is the United States' largest independent hotel management company based on revenue managed.  Interstate has operated hotels in Europe for over a decade and is committed to additional expansion throughout the European Union.  In 2008, Interstate established a hotel management platform in India and recently announced the establishment of a joint venture to create a platform to pioneer third party hotel management in China. 

The company and its affiliates manage and/or have ownership interests in a over 225 properties with nearly 46,000 rooms in the United States, Russia, India, Mexico, Belgium, Canada, Ireland and England.  The company has ownership interests in 56 of those properties, including six wholly owned assets.

Hotel Investor Profile: Bridgehouse Capital

UK based Bridgehouse Capital is a leading private equity investment advisory firm. The company had invested in a wide range of sectors, including niche real estate projects such as Internet Data Centers, telecommunications facilities, logistics facilities and hotels. In terms of the geography, the fund invests in projects in the UK, across Europe, and in the US.

One of the most notable real estate related acquisitions it had made was acquisition of 37 Thistle managed hotel through Bridgehouse Capital’s hotel investment arm Atlantic Hotels.

More Hotel Investors profile & ideas can be found from our Global Real Estate Investors Guide available from http://researchwhitepaper.com