The Hotel Industry Pulse Index recovered in February, reports e-forecasting.com in conjunction with STR. After edging down 0.5 percent in January, HIP improved 1.3 percent in February. HIP is a composite indicator that gauges business activity in the U.S. hotel industry in real-time, similar to a GDP. The latest monthly change brought the index to a reading of 82.5. The index was set to equal 100 in 2000.
Kingdom Holding Company’s subsidiary intends to acquire all of the shares and gross debt services of Kingdom Hotel Investments not already owned by KHC (being 44 percent of the total outstanding shares).
The offer received the unanimous recommendation of the Independent Committee of the directors of KHI. The offer values KHI at approximately US$843 million.
Whitbread Plc’s Premier Inn acquired the remaining 50.1-percent stake in the Indian joint venture with real estate developer Emaar MGF, The Economic Times reports.
Emaar MGF is a joint venture between Dubai’s Emaar Properties and Indian financier MGF.
The 2009 year-end room revenue statistics for hotel real-estate investment trusts illustrate the pain hotel investors have been experiencing, Stephen R. Hennis of STR Analytics writes on HotelNewsNow.com. While significant declines were apparent in both occupancy and average daily rate, average rate fell at a steeper pace than occupancy. Year-over-year occupancy declines ranged from 2.6 percent to 8.8 percent, and year-over-year average daily rate drops spanned from 9.6 percent to 15.3 percent.
The Helmsley Carlton House in Manhattan was sold for approximately US$170 million to private-equity firm Angelo, Gordon & Company and Extell Development Company, The Wall Street Journal reports. The buyer raised a total of US$2 billion in 2006 and 2007 and had spent only 25 percent of that capital until mid-2009, when the firm began buying again, according to an investor in its funds.
Compiled by Stacey Mieyal Higgins.
