Cerberus & Chatham Win Innkeepers

Bought 65 hotels for $1.1 billion, 7 hotels still for sale.

See here for more on the Innkeepers saga...

Innkeeper's USA Update

Bloomberg reports (sorry, no link) that the 72-hotel Apollo-owned Innkeepers portfolio has a new bankruptcy proposal filed pushing for control by Five Mile and Lehman. This follows the prior proposal which was ultimately blocked by Midland, one of the Specials because, at least in part, it resulted in the sponsor retaining an equity position.

The current plan focuses on the preferred equity holders retaining an interest in the 5 hotels that are not in CMBS deals and proposes an auction to see if there is a better bid from the market on the portfolio.

Innkeepers

Innkeepers filed for bankruptcy, in front of looming refi problems...

Forty-four of the properties are Marriott-flagged, and they've agreed to forbear any claims so long as 23 are "improved". In addition to the senior mortgage in LBUBS 2007-C7 AND LBUBS 2007-C6, there is also a $50.7mm loan from Five Mile, and the new agreement calls for a $17mm loan to improve the Marriott properties. Equity is wiped out in the plan.

From Bloomberg:

The hotel company, laboring under $1.42 billion in debt, holds interests in 72 upscale and midprice extended-stay hotels operated under brands such as Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton. The hotels are spread across 19 states and Washington, D.C.
...
took on hundreds of millions of dollars in debt in a $1.5 billion buyout by Apollo Investment Corp. Apollo Investment, which receives advisory services from an affiliate of private-equity firm Apollo Global Management, purchased the hotel company around the top of the market in 2007. Apollo declined to comment.

and then the journalist just takes a nose dive and loses all credibility:

The loans were then carved up and sold to investors as collateralized mortgage-backed securities.

Really, he has a couple of quotes after that which might be worth reading if the C in CMBS stood for "collateralized".