Newport Beach-based Clearview Hotel Trust Inc. plans an initial public offering to raise up to $375 million to purchase more than a dozen hotels.
The real estate investment trust—formed about a month ago—plans to buy 14 upscale hotels from Kentucky’s Columbia Sussex Corp. in 12 states.
Columbia Sussex would continue to operate the hotels.
Clearview said the hotels are poised for revenue growth. They’re near state universities, state capitals and convention centers, according to the company.
John Kline, Clearview’s chairman and chief executive, served as president at San Clemente-based hotel owner Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. until 2007.
Sunstone completed more than $2 billion in acquisitions during Kline’s tenure.
Hotel investors including Sunstone were slammed amid the recession as tumbling occupancy and room rates hurt the industry’s bottom line.
Hotel operators are seeing an uptick in business as business travelers are beginning to travel with more regularity.
Underwriters of Clearview’s offering include New York-based Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch, Germany’s Deutsche Bank Securities AG, Switzerland’s UBS Investment Bank AG and others.
The company’s stock is set to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CVW” after the offering, a date for which hasn’t been set yet.
