Blackstone Group owned budget hotel chain La Quinta files for IPO
11 Feb 2014
Blackstone Group-owned budget hotel chain La Quinta Holdings Inc, yesterday made a filing with US regulators to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering.
La Quinta said that the IPO will begin once the US Securities and Exchange Commission has completed its review process.
La Quinta has hired JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley as the underwriters for the IPO and said in its filing that the ''number of shares of common stock to be sold and the price range for the proposed offering has not yet been determined.''
La Quinta has not yet specified the size or timing of its offering but said that Blackstone will continue to own a majority of the company following the IPO.
Last year, Blackstone was looking at selling La Quinta, which could have fetched the New York-based private equity firm around $4.5 billion, according to analysts. (See: Suitors line up for US budget hotel chain La Quinta Inns & Suites)
Blackstone, which acquired La Quinta n 2006 for $3.4 billion, had last year valued the budget hotel chain at around $4.5 billion, including debt.
Quinta is one of the largest limited-service hotels in the US with 836 hotels in the US, Canada and Mexico having around 84,000 rooms.
The Dallas, Texas-based budget hotel chain competes with AmericInn Hotels, Comfort Inn, Baymont Inn & Suites, Fairfield Inn, Country Inns & Suites, and Hampton Inn.
For the nine months ended 30 Sept, La Quinta's revenue grew by 6.8 per cent to $673.4 million, but net income fell to $8.6 million from $46.2 million in 2012.
