Inland American to Spin Off Lodging Subsidiary

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc. plans to spin off much of its lodging portfolio, now handled by Inland American Lodging Group Inc., as a stand-alone, publicly traded company called Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc., Inland American announced Monday.

The REIT has filed a preliminary registration statement on an SEC Form 10 and noted that Xenia intends to apply to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “XHR.” Inland American expects the spinoff to be completed within four to eight months.

Assuming the proposal goes through, Xenia will be a self-managed, lodging-only REIT headquartered in Orlando, Fla. It would own 46 hotels with 12,636 guest rooms in 19 states and the District of Columbia, along with a majority interest in two hotels under development.

Xenia will focus on premium full-service, lifestyle and urban upscale hotels in the top 25 lodging markets and key leisure destinations throughout the United States, “with a particular focus on urban and densely populated suburban markets with multiple demand generators and high barriers to entry,” the company said in a statement. Its portfolio will include such brands as Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Starwood, Kimpton, Aston, Fairmont and Loews.

Xenia will be led by president and CEO Marcel Verbaas, a member of Xenia’s board of directors who, with his team, has managed Inland American’s lodging assets since 2007.

“Over the past 18 months, Inland American has been implementing its long-term strategy of focusing our portfolio into three asset classes – lodging, multi-tenant retail and student housing,” Inland American president Thomas P. McGuinness commented in the statement. “We believe the potential spin-off is an important and significant step” toward achieving this and other strategic goals, he added.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. L.L.C. are financial advisors to Inland American in relation to the spinoff and Latham & Watkins L.L.P. is providing  legal counsel.

The brand name Xenia (pronounced ZEEN-yah) is derived from an ancient Greek term that refers to offering hospitality to a stranger.

Inland American is also currently marketing for sale their remaining suburban select-service hotels. As of March 31, Inland American owned 20,093 hotel rooms.

The spinoff is expected to take place through a pro rata distribution by Inland American of a specified percentage of the outstanding shares of Xenia common stock. Following the distribution, Inland American stockholders will own shares of common stock in both Inland American (the same number of shares each stockholder held initially) and Xenia.