San Clemente-based Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. upped the amount of shares it plans to sell in an offering and priced them Friday to raise $144 million before fees.
Sunstone is selling 20 million shares at $7.20 each. The company’s shares were trading at about $7.70 near the close of trading with a market value of $575 million.
The offering is up from 14 million shares plus an additional 2.1 million shares to meet extra demand announced on Thursday.
The money is expected to go toward regular operations, including “one or more hotel acquisitions,” Sunstone said.
Any buying would mark a change in course for Sunstone, which has given two hotels back to lenders since June.
Last month, Sunstone said it plans to forfeit its Marriott Ontario Airport, a 299-room hotel across the street from LA-Ontario International Airport.
In June, Sunstone said it planned to turn over the W Hotel in San Diego to lenders, a deal that recently wrapped up.
In both cases, Sunstone opted not to keep paying on mortgages that were worth more than the hotels themselves and after lenders declined to rework the loans.
Sunstone said it also has stopped making payments on a mortgage for the Renaissance Westchester Hotel in White Plains, N.Y., and is in talks with lenders about reworking the loan.
The company continues to wrestle with a hard-hit market. Earlier this week, Sunstone offered an update on operations with big ongoing declines in revenue and profits.
