Starwood mulls over options to exit Louvre Hotels

PARIS - STARWOOD Capital is considering options to sell Louvre Hotels, Europe's number-two budget hotel group, French daily Les Echos reported on Friday.
The US investment firm is considering either a stock market listing of Louvre Hotels or its sale, the paper said.
Starwood Capital declined to comment.
'Starwood Capital has launched the process to be ready at end-2011 or early 2012. Preparing for a possible bourse listing takes time but the decision will depend on market conditions. Starwood Capital is by nature opportunistic,' a source close to the matter told Les Echos.
Starwood Capital took on Louvre Hotels as part of its acquisition of Taittinger's hotel and champagne empire in 2005

A Hotel Mogul Gets a Reprieve

Kentucky hotelier Bill Yung III has found a solution to one of his debt problems just weeks after relinquishing control of 14 hotels to a lender, Blackstone Group LP.
Mr. Yung's Columbia Sussex Corp. has lined up loans from Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital Group totaling $206 million to replace debt that came due last July, the companies announced Tuesday. The deal means that 10 hotels pledged as collateral for those loans will remain with Columbia Sussex for another several years.
The loans from Starwood Capital include $192 million in a mortgage and mezzanine loan at an 8% interest rate. Those loans, maturing in January 2016, are tied to eight hotels. In addition, a $14 million, one-year bridge loan averaging a 12% interest rate is tied to two hotels.

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Saudi royal buys landmark Crillon hotel in Paris

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The prestigious Hotel de Crillon in the heart of Paris has been sold to a member of the Saudi royal family.

The 18th Century former palace, on the Place de la Concorde, is said to have been bought for around 250m euros (£212m, $328m).

The Crillon is currently owned by US company Starwood Capital which acquired the hotel when it took over the Taittinger empire in 2005.

An earlier attempt to sell the hotel to Saudi-backed JJW ended up in court.
In April, the court ruled that JJW would have to pay Starwood 100m euros to settle the dispute, which involved an alleged breach of contract.

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Saudi royalty buys Paris's Crillon hotel

PARIS — Paris's world-famous luxury Crillon hotel has been sold to Saudi investors linked to the royal family for around 250 million euros (355 million dollars), sources close to the sale told AFP on Friday.
US-based Starwood Capital is in the final stages of the sale which does not include a reportedly 100-million-euro programme needed to modernise one of the world's oldest luxury hotels, according to the daily Le Figaro.

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Starwood Property Trust Announces $175 Million of Additional Capital Commitments

GREENWICH, Conn., July 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: STWD) (the "Company") announced today that the Company has recently committed to invest approximately $175 million of capital in three separate transactions. In July, the Company sourced and was the lead lender in the origination of a $138.0 million renovation loan (the "Hotel Loan") for the Hyatt Regency New Orleans (the "Hotel") and was the purchaser of an $85.0 million subordinate first mortgage loan (the "Mall Loan") secured by a regional mall located in suburban Columbus, Ohio (the "Mall") for a discounted purchase price of $68.6 million. In addition, the Company has committed to purchase an additional $45.5 million participation in a B-note secured by four resorts in the United Kingdom (the "Corporate Loan") for a discounted purchase price of $37.4 million.

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RBS Sells London's Cumberland Hotel to London & Regional, Starwood Capital

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the largest bank owned by the U.K. government, sold London’s Cumberland Hotel to London & Regional Properties Ltd. and Starwood Capital Group LLC to reduce its investment in hotels.

The transaction closed yesterday, RBS spokeswoman Aoife Reynolds said in a telephone interview today. Reynolds declined to confirm a report in Property Week magazine that the closely held purchasers paid almost 215 million pounds ($324 million) for the 1,019-bedroom hotel at Marble Arch in central London.

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Has the Rio lost its shine for buyers?

When billionaire Phil Ruffin bought Treasure Island last year, speculation swirled about other Las Vegas hotels that could be sold by cash-strapped casino giants.

The name game fizzled, however, as the big corporations chipped away at their massive debts. Banks are helping out by granting extensions and more flexible terms on loans, some in exchange for higher interest rates. And few potential buyers — less than half a dozen entities, by some measures — have Ruffin’s resources and industry background.

For those casino companies that have not fallen into bankruptcy or defaulted on loans, the desire to sell has waned. As long as they can restructure their debts outside the courtroom, they are not going to be eager to unload casinos that are still earning money.

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Starwood Capital buys stake in hotel management co

Private equity firm Starwood Capital has bought a 49.9 percent stake in privately held Hersha Hospitality Management to form a partnership to tap into management opportunities in the lodging space.


Starwood Capital, led by Barry Sternlicht -- founder of Starwood Hotels and Resorts (HOT.N) -- will contribute capital and deal-flow to the partnership.

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Extended Stay Says Starwood Capital Bid ’Better’ Than Rival’s Offer

May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Investors led by Starwood Capital Group made a “better” bid for Extended Stay Inc. than an earlier offer from Centerbridge Partners LP and Paulson & Co., a lawyer for the bankrupt hotel chain said.


Extended Stay, which is seeking to sell its assets in an effort to emerge from bankruptcy protection, received the Starwood bid yesterday, the deadline for submitting competing offers for the hotel operator.

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Starwood Capital Will Make New Bid for Extended Stay Hotels

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Starwood Capital Group LLC will make a new bid for Extended Stay Hotels Inc., which filed the largest bankruptcy case by a U.S. hotel owner, a Starwood lawyer said in court.


“We’re interested in bidding for this company,” Bruce Zirinksy said yesterday at a hearing in Manhattan in which U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck approved the bidding procedures. “We think we have already, through our prior bid, increased the company’s value by several hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Starwood’s earlier bid for the company, which had $7.6 billion in debt when it sought bankruptcy protection in June, was overtaken by one for $905.4 million from Centerbridge Partners LP and Paulson & Co. Zirinsky told Peck that he and Starwood learned on April 21 that Blackstone Group LP will become a third partner in the Centerbridge-Paulson bid for the company.

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Starwood Capital raises $2.8 billion for real estate funds

The Starwood Global Opportunity Fund VIII, which will target distressed debt and properties, has raised more than $1.8 billion. The Hospitality Fund II, which will invest in hotels, raked in almost $1 billion, the agency said.


Starwood, led by real estate developer Barry Sternlicht, had in the past raised about $10 billion of equity for 11 funds and other investments, the agency said.

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Starwood’s Sternlicht Seeks Riviera Casinos Through Bankruptcy

March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group LLC, the investment firm that’s raising a $1.5 billion real estate fund, is trying to take over ailing Las Vegas casino-owner Riviera Holdings Corp. four years after a bid he backed was shot down by shareholders.


Starwood Capital, along with “some friends,” bought control of Riviera’s first mortgage for about 50 cents on the dollar and is leading creditors negotiating a pre-packaged bankruptcy, Sternlicht said on a conference call with potential investors. Riviera, which owns a Colorado casino in addition to the 55- year-old Las Vegas resort, defaulted on a $245 million loan in February 2009.

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Extended Stay accepts offer from Starwood Capital

GREENWICH, Conn. — Extended Stay Hotels Inc. has decided to take an investment offer worth up to $905 million from a group led by Starwood Capital Group in order to exit bankruptcy, abandoning an earlier proposal from Centerbridge Partners and Paulson & Co.

The hotel chain said Thursday that the proposal from Starwood, TPG Capital and Five Mile Capital Partners would value it at about $3.9 billion after the deal closes. It also said the deal would strengthen its balance sheet, lower its debt to $2.8 billion from $7.4 billion and provide cash reserves that would be poured into its properties and operations.

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Starwood Capital makes bid for Extended Stay

NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) - An investor group led by Starwood Capital is saying its plan to take U.S. mid-priced hotel chain Extended Stay America Inc [ESAIN.UL] out of bankruptcy would be a better option than the company's plan, which is backed by rival private equity firms.

Starwood said in court papers filed on Saturday that it had submitted a "binding offer" to sponsor Extended Stay's plan of reorganization on Friday. Starwood said that it believes its offer would provide "substantially greater" value for the company's creditors, and more access to new cash for the company.

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Louvre Hotels open throughout Asia

Louvre Hotels is to expand in south-east Asia, beginning with the recent signing of two hotels in Thailand’s resort destination of Pattaya. The hotel group, which is owned by Starwood Capital and run by Barry Sternlicht, is aiming for a different strategy in Asia compared to other countries.

Currently Louvre Hotels is opening three different offices in Asia, in India, Shanghai in China and Bangkok in south-east Asia. This year the group will be opening hotels in Thailand including the Golden Tulip Resort Pattaya, Golden Tulip Erawan Hotel (Pattaya), Tulip Inn Lumpini Park (Bangkok) and Golden Tulip Madison Suites Bangkok.

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Starwood Cap may sell some luxury hotels

PARIS, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Investment group Starwood Capital wants to beef up its budget hotel business and could part with some of its high-end luxury hotels, including its flagship Le Crillon hotel in Paris, its CEO said in a newspaper interview.

Starwood is also interested in finding a partner to boost the growth of French crystal glass maker Baccarat and perfume house Annick Goutal, Barry Sternlicht told Les Echos.

"We are very happy with the performance of our budget hotel business. It is a very stable business. We want to grow that hotel sector."

Asked whether Starwood, which put Le Crillon hotel on the market last year but did not reach a deal with Saudi-backed JJW Hotels & Resorts, was still looking to sell its luxury hotels, he said: "We will probably sell some hotels"

On the Crillon, Sternlicht said: "If an interesting offer is made, we will look at it closely. It's not just a price issue. Let's be clear, there is currently no deal to sell Le Crillon."

Starwood was under no pressure to sell assets, having recently refinanced its debt, he however stressed.

Hotel Operator Buys Time

Starwood Capital Group has withdrawn its demand to end Extended Stay Inc.'s exclusive control over its bankruptcy case and indicated that it is now negotiating with the hotel operator.

In papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Starwood said it would no longer protest Extended Stay's request for an extension through May 3 to file its bankruptcy-exit plan.

Starwood revised its position after Extended Stay showed it would be more receptive to the investment firm's proposals for the company.

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Starwood Capital Shows Interest In Extended Stay Hotels

Today’s big story (in my mind at least) is a Wall Street Journal article today that brought to light Starwood Capital’s new found interest in the Extended Stay bankruptcy battle. (I’m writing this directly from my blackberry so I can’t get a direct link).
In a nutshell – it states that Starwood Cap is joining a group of investors (mainly those involved with the first mortgage of the deal) in putting down funding to take the deal out of bankruptcy court.

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Starwood looking to sell Societe Du Louvre Hotels piece by piece

The New York Post had a story providing some light into Starwood Capital’s sale of the Crillon hotel in France. Apparently Starwood Capital was in negotiations with JJW Hotels & Resorts – a high end hotel company based in the Middle East to sell the Crillon and nine other hotels from the Societe Du Louvre portfolio. Recently Starwood had instructed their property brokers to look for other sellers as JJW did not pay the entire $214 million deposit. Starwood had doubts that JJW would be able to get the financing to complete the sale of the portfolio as expected.

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