REPORT FROM THE U.S.—Chatham Lodging Trust plans to offer 7.5 million shares at an anticipated US$20 per share for an expected US$150 million in proceeds, the hotel real estate investment trust has revealed in a regulatory filing.
Chatham will invest in premium-branded, select-service hotels such as Courtyard by Marriott, Hampton Inn, and Hampton Inn and Suites, the REIT said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It will focus its efforts in the 25 biggest markets in the United States.
“We believe that current market conditions, including deteriorating industry fundamentals, will create attractive opportunities to acquire high quality hotels at cyclically low prices that will benefit from an improving economy and our aggressive asset management,” the company said in the filing.
Chatham has already entered into an agreement to buy six Homewood Suites properties comprising 813 rooms from RLJ Development LLC for US$73.5 million. The hotels are in the Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Nashville, Hartford, Connecticut and Orlando, Florida, markets.
Concurrently with the closing of the offering, Chatham said it will sell 500,000 common shares for an expected US$10 million to the REIT’s CEO Jeffrey H. Fisher.
Chatham will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and will use the symbol “CLDT.”
