Ronan backer mulls sale of billions worth of hotel assets

COLONY Capital, a financial backer of some of Ireland’s biggest commercial property developments has effectively put billions of dollars of US hotel assets up for sale after reporting this month that some of its portfolio companies had defaulted on $3.2bn of debt.

In Ireland, billionaire Tom Barrick’s Colony Capital is the backer of high-profile office projects including major schemes for Facebook and Salesforce being undertaken by Johnny Ronan’s development company.

Colony Capital said earlier this month that a number of its portfolio companies have defaulted on $3.2bn (€2.9bn) of debt that’s secured by hotels and healthcare properties.

Yesterday, US stock market-listed Colony filed a notification with financial details of its hotel assets across America.

“This disclosure improves the company’s ability to explore potential transactions involving portions of the company’s hospitality borrowings, including transacting in the borrowings either directly or through joint ventures or other collaborative efforts with third-party capital sources,” it told investors in the filing.

As of the end of March, Colony Capital had approximately $50bn (€46bn) of assets under management, of which $38bn is capital managed on behalf of third-party investors and the remainder on the company’s own balance sheet managed for its stockholders.

Colony said its real estate investments in the hospitality, healthcare and retail sectors have either experienced or anticipate “myriad” challenges. Those include significant declines in operating cash flows which in turn affect their ability to meet debt service and covenant requirements.

This week, the ‘Irish Times’ reported that Colony had put a number of its Dublin property interests up for sale including a stake in the Burlington Plaza.

Follows $3.2bn default by Colony Capital units