Accor sells Motel 6 to Blackstone for $1.9 billion

Blackstone just agreed to buy Motel 6 from Accor SA for $1.9 billion dollars with a target close date in October 2012. The deal includes the 604 company owned hotels (my guesstimate at 97 keys per property puts that at 58,588 keys or $32,429 per key in terms of real property purchased only) and the franchise business from the 480 franchisees, and an additional 18 properties that were undefined (but this could be the Studio 6 brand that was part of the deal). The total deal value would have come in at $17,699 per key, but keep in mind that includes the Franchise and they're not actually buying that real estate. The WSJ published $25k per key, but I'm not sure how they got there. Looking at it from another angle, the price reflected a 9.3x 2011 EBITDA multiple.

JP and Deutsche Bank are providing the debt package, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it in the CMBS market in the near future.

Other interesting facts:

1. Accor originally purchased Motel 6 from KKR in 1990. 
2. Colony Capital owns a 21% stake in Accor.
3. Accor SA sold Red Roof Inns to a domestic investor group in 2007, right at the peak, and the $366mm CMBS senior mortgage from that deal ultimately defaulted in 2009, ultimately resulting in a 48% loss severity just one short year ago.
4. This almost completely removes Accor from the US market (other than Sofitel brands), but they have a substantial base internationally. The US now represents 1% of their total rooms - Europe= 56%; Asia Pacific = 28%. They even have a footnote stating that 35% of the hotel portfolio is in Emerging Markets - apparently roughly half of their pipeline is in Asia Pacific.
5. Reduces the percentage of owned rooms (versus leased, franchise, and just under management) to 10% of their total key count of 427,800 keys

The englais version of Accor SA's investor presentation on the Motel 6 disposal is here.


The current exposure to Motel 6 in CMBS is a little hard for me to gauge, and I'm sure I am missing some. It looks like the entered into a number of 20 year balloons and blocked off the properties in to SPEs with names like Mountain S9, East S9, etc. corresponding to their region. This is definitely not all of the debt associated with the hotels, though, because Accor noted in their press release that Blackstone is assuming €330mm in debt and fixed-lease commitments of €525mm - the debt below is listed with original face values (and it has amortized substantially in most cases) and only adds up to around €130mm using the original face and just a few dozen properties.

1. Accor- California South loan ($11.5mm) in CSFB 2001-CF2, which only covers 4 properties and matures in 2019. 
2.  Accor - Mountain Summary ($26.8mm) CSFB 1999-C1 is listed as a CTL so it's probably some master lease over a few properties. Matures in 2019.
3. Accor - California North Summary ($14.2mm) CSFB 1999-C1 with a 2019 maturity.
4. Accor - East Summary ($14.5mm) CSFB 1998-C2. 5 properties. 2019 maturity.
5. Accor - SouthEast Summary ($13.8mm) CSFB 1998-C2. 4 properties. 2019 maturity.
6. Accor - West Summary ($13.2mm). CSFB 1998-C2. 3 properties. 2019 maturity.
7. Accor - Texas Summary ($30.3mm) CSFB 1998-C2. 6 properties. 2019 maturity.
8. Accor - Florida Summary ($19.2mm). CSFB 1998-C2. 4 properties.2019 maturity.
9. Accor - Midwest Summary ($15.7mm). CSFB 1998-C2. 5 properties. 2019 maturity.
10. There are a couple of other non-defeased Motel 6 loans, but they look like franchises.