LaSalle Hotel Properties Closes $177.5M Loan

LaSalle Hotel Properties announced this month that it had closed on a new $177.5 million term loan. The seven-year term loan matures on May 16, 2019, and was swapped to a fixed interest rate for the full seven-year term. The loan closing came days before LaSalle Hotel prepared to finish redeeming about $166.8 million of its preferred shares on May 21, according to a Law360 article.

Regions Capital Markets and BMO Capital Markets were Joint Lead Arrangers and Joint Book Running Managers. US Bank, BB&T and Raymond James Bank were also participants in the term loan.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Dispute Between HCP and Ventas Over Sunrise Senior Living

A new article from the Wall Street Journal, Battle Royal in Health-Care World, examines the fate of Sunrise Senior Living after a four year takeover move. According to the article, HCP Inc. recently sent a $102 million check to Ventas Inc., but Ventas now says it's seeking punitive damages, which Richard Anderson, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, estimates could run as high as $300 million. An excerpt from the article:

Ventas's move opens a new chapter in a battle that has transfixed the typically collegial world of health-care real estate. It dates back to Ventas's C$1.8 billion (US$1.75 billion) acquisition of Sunrise Senior Living, a Canadian real-estate investment trust, in April 2007. Chicago-based Ventas successfully argued in federal court in Kentucky that HCP, sabotaged its deal with Sunrise after losing in the bidding process, forcing Ventas to pay a higher price.

The players know each other well. Ventas Chief Executive Debra Cafaro was a classmate of HCP Chief Executive Jay Flaherty at the University of Notre Dame.

Even if Ventas succeeds in collecting punitive damages, the financial pain won't be great for Long Beach, Calif.-based HCP, which has a market capitalization of $15 billion.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.