An affiliate of Aliso Viejo-based Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. got $26.5 million on the sale of the hotel REIT’s online purchasing portal for hospitality products and services to Avendra LLC in Rockville, Md.
Sunstone Chief Executive John Arabia said the sale of the BuyEfficient portal by Sunstone Hotel TRS Lessee Inc. clears the parent company to focus “all [our] efforts on our core business—hotel ownership.”
Sunstone plans to continue to use BuyEfficient, a group purchasing system similar to Newport Beach-based BirchStreet Systems Inc. and others that bundle orders to get clients better prices on products and services.
The unit had revenue of $7.2 million and net income of $1.4 million in 2014 and was on track to hit $8 million in revenue and $1.5 million in net income this year, Sunstone said.
Sunstone had $88 million in earnings on $1.14 billion in revenue in 2014. It is the eighth-largest public company based in Orange County, according to Business Journal data, with a recent market capitalization of about $2.7 billion. It has ownership in 30 properties with 14,300 rooms.
Avendra is a buying group owned by several large hotel chains.
—Paul Hughes
