CHICAGO—Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. said Monday that it was exploring strategic alternatives for the company, including a possible sale. The lodging REIT, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange as BEE, has retained J.P. Morgan as financial advisor.
The announcement confirms a report in Bloomberg Business last month that quoted sources said to be familiar with the matter. The sources said that eBay Inc. founder Pierre Omidyar, who controls development company Ohana Real Estate Investors, was among those interested in acquiring BEE.
More recently, Seattle-based Cascade Investment LLC, controlled by Bill Gates, said in an SEC filing Monday that it had increased its ownership of BEE to 9.8%. Cascade, BEE's second-largest shareholder after Vanguard Group, also said in the SEC filing that it had entered into a confidentiality and standstill agreement with BEE providing, among other things, for “the sharing of certain non-public information.”
BEE's chairman and CEO, Raymond L. Gellein, says the company's board and management team “remain committed to acting in the best interests of our shareholders. We are confident in our strategic plan and the value we have created for our shareholders. At the same time, we are always open to ways in which we can further maximize shareholder value.”
In a statement, BEE says there are no guarantees that it will enter into any transaction at this time or in the future. The company will not make any further public announcements until it has completed exploring its options.
Reuters reported in 2013 that BEE had hired Eastdil Secured in connection with a possible sale of the REIT, following the departure in November 2012 of founder and CEO Laurence Geller. At that time, the company had a market value of about $1.6 billion; today it is $3.8 billion.
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