Ashford Hospitality Buys $250 Million Hotel Portfolio from Getty Trust, Soros and Fisher Brothers
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(Houston, Texas) – Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE: AHT) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire for $250 million a 21-property, 4,094-room hotel portfolio from entities controlled by affiliates of the Gordon Getty Trust, George Soros and the Fisher Brothers collectively as majority partners, and certain members of Ashford’s senior management team as minority partners.
The purchase price is comprised of $35.0 million in cash, the issuance of $50.3 million in operating partnership units and the assumption of $164.7 million in debt. The operating partnership units were priced at $10.07 using the 20-day average closing price calculated five business days prior to the signing of the documents. Ashford management, comprising approximately 22 percent of the selling entity, structured approximately 100 percent of their net consideration in the form of operating partnership units. The Fisher, Getty and Soros entities, comprising approximately 78 percent of the ownership interests in the selling entity, structured approximately 50 percent of their consideration in cash and 50 percent in operating partnership units.
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP served as legal advisor to Ashford in the transaction.
The core portfolio consists of 13 hotels across five brands and one independent property comprising 3,099 total rooms: Houston Embassy Suites Galleria in Houston, Tex.; Houston Hilton NASA/Clearlake in Houston, Tex.; Fort Worth Radisson in Fort Worth, Tex.; St. Petersburg Hilton in St. Petersburg, Fla.; West Palm Beach Embassy Suites and Admiralty Office Building in West Palm Beach, Fla.; Key West Crowne Plaza LaConcha in Key West, Fla.; Sheraton Minneapolis West in Minnetonka, Minn.; Beverly Hills Crowne Plaza in Los Angeles, Calif.; Rockland Radisson Hotel Boston/South Shore in Rockland, Mass.; Milford Radisson in Milford, Mass.; Indianapolis Airport Radisson Hotel in Indianapolis, Ind.; Indianapolis Radisson Hotel City Centre in Indianapolis, Ind.; and the Historic Inns in Annapolis, Maryland. Remington Lodging & Hospitality, an affiliate of the current manager of the properties, will operate the hotels.
About Ashford Hospitality Trust
Ashford Hospitality Trust is a self-administered real estate investment trust focused on investing in the hospitality industry across all segments and at all levels of the capital structure, including direct hotel investments, first mortgages, mezzanine loans and sale-leaseback transactions. Additional information can be found on the Company’s Web site at www.ahtreit.com.
About Akin Gump
Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a leading international law firm, numbers more than 900 lawyers with offices in Austin, Brussels, Dallas, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Philadelphia, Riverside, Riyadh (affiliate), San Antonio, San Francisco and Washington. The firm has a diversified practice and represents regional, national and international clients in a wide range of areas, including antitrust; appellate; banking and finance; capital markets; communications and information technology; corporate and securities; corporate governance; employee benefits; energy; entertainment and media; environmental; estate planning, wealth transfer and probate; financial restructuring; global security; government contracts; health; insurance; intellectual property; international trade; investment funds; labor and employment; land use; litigation; mergers and acquisitions; private equity; privatization; project development and finance; public law and policy; real estate development and finance; Russia/CIS; tax; and technology.
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