The Firm represented La Quinta Holdings Inc. in connection with its initial public offering of 43,987,500 shares of common stock (including shares sold pursuant to the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares) at a public offering price of $17.00 per share. La Quinta’s common stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “LQ” on April 9, 2014. The underwriting syndicate was led by J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley.
Concurrently with the completion of the IPO, the Firm also represented La Quinta in connection with new senior secured credit facilities consisting of a $2.1 billion senior secured term loan facility and a $250 million senior secured revolving credit facility.
La Quinta used the net proceeds of the IPO, together with the net proceeds from the term loans and available cash, to repay approximately $2.7 billion of the Company’s outstanding debt. Any remaining net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.
La Quinta, a Blackstone portfolio company, is a leading owner, operator and franchisor of select-service hotels primarily serving the midscale and upper-midscale segments. The Company’s owned and franchised portfolio consists of more than 830 hotels, representing approximately 84,000 rooms located in 46 states, as well as in Canada and Mexico.
The Simpson Thacher team included Michael Nathan, Lia Toback, Sung Bum Cho and Andrew Edelen (Capital Markets); Sas Mehrara, Whitney Roland, Kevin Boroumand, Jason Mohr, Kathryn Altomonte and Scott Farmer (Real Estate); Alden Millard, Brian Gluck, Taylor Smith and Mitchell Ryan (Credit); Brad Goldberg, Ellen Smiley and Amanda Weiss (Public Company Advisory Practice); Shannon O’Sullivan, Daniel Daneshrad, Fan Wei and Ben Smith (Funds); John Hart and Adam Wells (Tax); David Rubinsky, Jeanne Annarumma and Jeannine McSweeney (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits); Timothy Mulvihill (Environmental); Matthew Kopko (Intellectual Property); and Jonathan Pall (UCC). Frank Kwok, Jennifer Nadborny and James Rapp also provided invaluable assistance.
