Platinum Eagle Completes $1.4B Merger

Pecos South facility

Platinum Eagle Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, Target Logistics Management LLC—aka Target Lodging—and RL Signor Holdings LLC have completed a transaction under which Platinum Eagle acquired both Target Lodging and Signor Lodging for about $1.4 billion in total consideration. As part of the transaction, Platinum Eagle changed its name to Target Hospitality Corp.

The deal reportedly creates the nation’s largest provider of specialty rental accommodations with premium catering and value-added hospitality services.

Specialty rental accommodations

As it pertains to what appears to be the largest slice of Target’s business, the term means housing for oil and gas industry workers in remote locations on the Great Plains and in the Texas Oil Patch, along with related hospitality services such as food service and housekeeping.

Pecos South facility

These purpose-built facilities, which average roughly 600 beds each, are intended to provide a better housing option for oil and gas industry workers than extended-stay hotels, motels or RV parks, typically under a multi-year contract with an energy company.

Target’s portfolio includes about 13,000 beds in 22 facilities with a gross value of about $470 million. There are 15 facilities in the Permian Basin in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico, plus five in North Dakota’s Bakken Formation. The 22nd is in Oklahoma.

The company claims to have about 20 percent market share in its sector. Its clients include such major oil and gas companies as Anadarko, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, Marathon, Schlumberger and Shell.

It also has in the pipeline eight projects totaling more than 4,900 rooms, representing a combined capital expenditure of $213 million and scheduled for completion by the fourth quarter of this year.

There are other facets to the business, also. In one case, a client needed housing for oil field workers in North Dakota. Winter was approaching, but there was a local moratorium on the construction of temporary housing. Target’s solution was to buy an existing hotel and revamp it into a facility with 246 oversized extended-stay guest rooms, along with a conference room, business center, recreation room and gym.

Target also subleases to Corrections Corp. of America a 2,556-bed “family residential center” built in 2014 in Dilley, Texas, for asylum-seeking families. Target provides food services at the facility.

Governance and advice 

The former Target Lodging’s management team will lead Target Hospitality. The team includes President & CEO Brad Archer, CFO Andy Aberdale, Chief Commercial Officer Troy Schrenk, Executive Vice President & General Counsel Heidi Lewis and Senior Vice President of Operations Travis Kelley.

The chairman of Target Hospitality will be Stephen Robertson, co-founder of TDR Capital, the private equity firm that owns Algeco—the parent of Target Lodging—and also owned Signor Lodging. He will be joined on the board by Gary Lindsay, a partner at TDR Capital, and Jeff Sagansky, CEO of Platinum Eagle.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and BofA Merrill Lynch served as capital markets advisors and private placement agents to Platinum Eagle. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acted as exclusive financial advisor on the transaction. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. served as general financial advisor to Platinum Eagle. Winston & Strawn LLP acted as legal advisor to Platinum Eagle, and Allen & Overy LLP acted as legal advisor to Target Lodging and Signor Lodging.

Image courtesy of Target Hospitality