The guidance was above analyst expectations and, coupled with news Accor was ahead on plans to sell assets to cut debt and on cost savings, drove up its shares over 6 percent. Earlier this month InterContinental Hotels, the world’s biggest hotelier, was upbeat after room occupancy levels rose through the first half and room rates turned positive in July, echoing strong results from rivals Marriott (MAR.N) and Starwood (HOT.N) in the United Sates. [ID:nLDE6790MX] Accor Chief Executive Gilles Pelisson told a conference call that the hotel business trend for September was “rather good”, notably from core business clients in Europe.

“We have less visibility over the end of the year and thus remain cautious,” he added.

The campaign involved badges, bumper stickers, jingles and a Facebook group that attracted several thousand members. Atlantis issued a press release stating its fish husbandry team had worked towards Sammy’s release in accordance with international conventions on endangered species and she had been set free in the ocean.  Click here for full report…

Taylor comes to Hunter from HTL Hospitality Advisors, where he was managing director of the firm’s Miami brokerage and consulting business. Before entering the hotel brokerage business, Taylor was founding partner, president, and CEO of Brookshire Hotels, a nationwide full-service hotel management and development company with a portfolio of about 30 hotels.  In his new role at Hunter, Taylor smells opportunity. He points to Smith Travel Research’s Aug. 14 report that shows Miami-Dade’s occupancy rose to 74%, up from 69% a year ago. Broward’s occupancy rate rose from 60% to 63% in the same period. Meanwhile, Orlando’s hotel occupancy climbed nearly 7% in July.

“The banks are starting to get a little bit more aggressive now,” Taylor tells GlobeSt.com. “They are more willing to loosen their purse strings. I expect to see more deals in Florida, and I think the state will recover more quickly than others. There’s a big pent up demand for vacations, so Florida as a tourism destination still has an advantage.”  Click here for full story from Globe Street…

Depending on whether we are actively looking for a distressed asset or there is a possibility of being handed one by default or bankruptcy, we need to be prepared with a plan to take advantage of the situation. Unquestionably, taking over an asset will cost money. With the proper plan, these costs can be minimized and most likely even recovered with whatever our company decides to do with the facility.

The first part of a distressed asset plan should focus on preserving its value. Because distressed assets come in many shapes and sizes all plans should be flexible but include at least the following three parts. The information obtained from these steps will provide an informed decision and decisive plan.

1. Site inspection — Knowing the condition of the facility enables the prospective owner to develop the best strategy for using or selling the asset. A site inspection by a competent inspection team with experience in construction and/or management of that type of facility should be completed. Often the team includes an operations manager from another facility or a third party expert such as Hill International. Information contained in the report must include the status of construction, life safety equipment, and the overall site conditions.
2. Protection of the facility — One of the key and possibly most overlooked steps is whether there are immediate steps that must be completed to protect the facility and the public. As a Purchaser or a Lender; unfunded and unanticipated operational costs are a very real challenging issue. Protection items should include making sure all of the life safety equipment is active (i.e. sprinklers, fire alarm and security). Validating that the building is protected against the weather, the air conditioning is operating as a protection from mold growth and even items as small as if the garbage is being collected. Piles of debris outside the front entry can seriously impact public opinion and the value of an asset.
3. Cost to complete or remediate — The third step is evaluating the cost of items required to finish or repair facility items. If the facility is partially finished, what will it cost to finish construction? Are there any liens on the project? How much is the general contractor owed and are they even willing to finish the work? Is there substandard construction that will require repairs or replacement? These items should be analyzed through a cost to complete analysis. Developing construction costs should be done by an experienced team of professionals. Even if you have the in-house capability to prepare a construction estimate, we recommend hiring a third-party expert experienced with distressed properties. Their experience will identify many aspects of incomplete projects that are often missed. Hill International has over 25 years of cost estimating experience on all types of construction.

Collection of project information will provide the data needed to make decisions about what to do with the asset. This can be the most critical and challenging part of the task. If the facility is no longer in demand in that area, perhaps it can be renovated at a reasonable cost into a different type of facility that could be more easily sold. Whatever the project, we believe that it is critical to develop an action plan now so that we are prepared to maximize the potential value of these assets as they become available.  Thanks to Hill International for this article, very informative..JLD

DeBoer has launched four extended-stay brands during his 45-plus years in the hotel industry—which he entered after a successful but rocky run in the apartment business. Residence Inn, Summerfield Suites and Candlewood Suites each have DeBoer’s fingerprints all over them. So does his current product, Value Place, which DeBoer admits might be more like an apartment building than a hotel.   “My sense is we’re more apartment than we are hotel,” DeBoer said during an interview held at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis.

“We perhaps have the operating numbers of a hotel, but we have the operating model of an apartment, and I like that, the apartment operating model, because there’s such favorable financing out there through (the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development) and all these other things.” The minimum stay at Value Place is seven days, and the average length of stay is about 70 days, according to DeBoer. There are 171 properties open with four under construction. The CEO of Value Place said the product has attracted apartment builders and hotel developers.

“Hotel developers find it rather difficult to operate a property that doesn’t have a 24/7 front desk, to operate a property that doesn’t have housekeeping every day, to operate a property that doesn’t have free breakfast,” DeBoer said. “They find it difficult to operate a property that doesn’t have frills. And they find it difficult to operate a property that they have 4.5 (full-time employees). That’s the secret. The secret sauce of Value Place is not the building; it’s the operating model.”  click here for full story…

Two major factors came into play that changed the landscape.

1. New changes in governmental regulations allow banks to leave the asset values “as-is” without incurring additional write-downs
2. The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy allows banks to borrow at close to zero interest

As banks made new loans or perhaps simply invested in treasuries, big profits are the results. Thus, the banking industry is recapitalizing and will soon be better able to write-down the bad loans. As we gradually move thru the recovery, book values and market values will improve and become more aligned with one another enabling the banks to sell their loans and not adversely affect their balance sheet or impair book values of similar assets.

Today, we are beginning to see many of the advantageous loan terms originated in prior years begin to mature. In some cases, floating rate or interest-only terms are beginning to expire. New opportunities are developing in the market place. As values have bottomed and are looking to rise, lenders will become more motivated to dispose of distressed assets. As these factors come to bear on financial decisions, we expect distressed assets to reach the market in greater and greater numbers throughout 2010 and 2011. For those who have been patient, the opportunity to invest in distressed assets at prices that make sense to the buyer and the seller will become more common.  Click here for full report…

]]> http://www.danielldevelopment.com/2010/08/30/buying-and-selling-distressed-assets/feed/ 0 http://www.danielldevelopment.com/2010/08/29/double-digit-revpar-for-extended-stay/ http://www.danielldevelopment.com/2010/08/29/double-digit-revpar-for-extended-stay/#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:37:28 +0000 editor http://www.danielldevelopment.com/?p=2916

Extended-stay hotel demand posted two consecutive quarters of growth above 16% in the first half of 2010. Demand is growing faster than the overall hotel industry, as it was emerging out of the previous downturn starting in 2002. What is very different this time is the change in supply. The growth rate in extended-stay supply started rising in 2004 and hit almost 6% in 2005 when overall U.S. hotel supply growth was essentially zero. Extended-stay hotel supply growth peaked at near 7% in 2009 but it is forecast to fall below 3% in 2010. In 2011, the projected supply growth rates for extended-stay hotels and all hotels are about the same. The main reason for this is that extended-stay room construction was the lowest for 15 years at the middle of 2010 and it is heading lower…. click here for full report…

The immutable laws of lodging investment by Rich Warnick (slim version)

1. Hotels are not an appropriate asset class for a long-term hold
2. Never fall in love with real estate
3. Location is and always will be the most important criteria
4. Leave some chips on the table. No one is smart enough to know when the bottom or the top will occur
5. Do not equate luck with skill or intellect
6. Easy credit is a leading indicator that the top is approaching
7. If you can’t build a hotel so as to open in the initial stages of a growth cycle, you probably shouldn’t build it at all
8. Cap rates should be viewed as a derivative of rather than an indicator of value
9. There will always be a replacement source of irrational capital
10. Leverage over 65% loan-to-value is a high-risk strategy for hotels
11. Understand the nature of various industry participants and diligently observe their behavior
12. The degree to which pricing is rational is inversely proportional to the amount and cost of capital in the system
13. The first sign that a down market is about to turn when the majority of industry participants have joined in its funeral dirge
14. Click here for full story from Hotel Online

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nashville government officials announced that Omni Hotels will build a $250 million, 800-room hotel next to the city’s new convention center downtown.  Mayor Karl Dean said Tuesday that the hotel will be built in two parking lots behind the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The buildings’ will be connected. He called it a “game changer” for the city.  ”With little risk to the taxpayers of Davidson County, we are partnering on a project, “said Mayor Dean.

• Omni will get a $103 million enhancement grant that Metro will pay it over 20 years after the hotel opens. Tourism tax dollars will pay for that.
• Omni will also get back$ 25 million dollars in tourism taxes for the cost of the land for the hotel project.

The city could be on the hook though for a million dollars if the deal falls through.  Mayor Dean stands behind the deal, believing a new hotel for the new convention center is exactly what Nashville needs. “But we know from the experiences of other cities, and from expert research that an adjacent headquarters hotel takes the convention center project from a home run, to a championship win in terms Of attendance, and the number of events it expects to host each year, ” said Dean.   Click here for full article….

• Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association chief executive Debbie Johnson says the state has lost about 40 conventions and $15 million so far. And she says that’s “a lowball guess.”
• Johnson says if there’s one bright spot, hotel bookings are up from last year.
• Convention organizers say it will take a lot of work to rebuild the state’s tattered image over immigration.

The state’s reputation was damaged further among the immigrant population, experts said. About 460,000 illegal immigrants wereestimated to live in Arizona in 2009. Hard numbers are impossible to come by, but anecdotal evidence for immigrants fleeing the state is rife in the press. USA Today reported unusual drops in enrollment at elementary schools, while Reuters wrote that many immigrants held yard sales to get rid of their belongings before fleeing. Local businesses are hurting — they have fewer customers and employees as people leave Arizona, according to the Los Angeles Times.  Click here for full report from Washington Independent…

The hotel will convert to the Crowne Plaza brand in mid-August and begin a $5 million renovation in September that includes upgrading all guest rooms and public spaces, as well as enhancements to the exterior.  The renovation will occur in phases to minimize potential guest disruptions.

Mark Zimmerman, a 30-year hotel veteran, has joined the hotel as general manager.  Previously, he was general manager at anotherRichfield property in Albany.  His career includes more than 17 years with Marriott International, including sales and marketing and operations, where he won awards for operating excellence.  He is a member of the Advisory Boards for SUNY Delhi University andSchenectady Community College.

“Upon conversion to the Syracuse Crowne Plaza, this well located, newly renovated property will be well positioned to quickly gain market share,” said Greg Mount, Richfield Hospitality president.  “This is our first acquisition under our new growth strategy focused on adding hotels to our portfolio as owners/joint venture partners and through third-party management.  We also have added third-party and asset management assignments.  We have seen an increase in acquisition opportunities to our already robust pipeline since the first of July.  We continue to focus on hotels and resorts in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.” Click here for full report from Reuters…

Most of the red-flagged, or “watchlist,” properties are not behind on payments. However, they have seen rents fall, leases expire, occupancy drop, bankruptcy of a parent company or some other financial stress that raises concerns about the ability to continue paying. Some, like the Westin, are tapping other sources to make loan payments.  Other properties have seen more deterioration. Some are months behind on payments. A small but growing number are tottering near foreclosure, have been foreclosed on or face other action for nonpayment.

In 2008, Mecklenburg County tax officials were banking on strong appreciation in commercial property values to offset potential declines from the housing crisis.  But the nation was already in recession. The cancer of lax lending was eating away the value of homes and investments. Commercial construction held on longer than residential, in part because the projects take longer.   As the nation’s financial system imploded, jobs disappeared in Banktown. Jobless consumers and those worried about losing jobs stopped spending on everything from shoes to sushi to weekend getaways. In turn, businesses scaled back or closed, further depleting income generated by commercial properties.

In 2008, soon after taking its $185 million loan, the Westin was earning nearly three times what it needed to make its loan payments. Last year, those monthly payments rose to about $1.2 million. At the same time, earnings fell. The Westin generated about 90 cents for every dollar due, according to Observer analysis of Bloomberg data and original deal documents.  That means the building wasn’t supporting itself, so the owners had to pay the shortfall out of pocket.  “The Charlotte market has seen a drastic decline in business travel due to this being a major banking driven economy,” the servicer for the Westin loan wrote in notes last updated in May. “The competition to fill rooms has therefore been impacted by this decline.”   Click here for full report from Charlotte Observer….

]]> http://www.danielldevelopment.com/2010/08/24/westin-charlotte-stresses-exposed-in-commercial-sector/feed/ 0 http://www.danielldevelopment.com/2010/08/23/qa-with-cbre%e2%80%99s-hotel-guru-dan-lesser/ http://www.danielldevelopment.com/2010/08/23/qa-with-cbre%e2%80%99s-hotel-guru-dan-lesser/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:07:19 +0000 editor http://www.danielldevelopment.com/?p=2839 A flurry of transaction activity suggests that the first half of the year may have been an inflection point for the US hotel sector. OurNYC reporter Amanda Marsh sat down with CBRE hotel guru Dan Lesser, senior managing director of the firm’s hospitality & gaming group, who tells us that long-anticipated green shoots are now slowly appearing.

B: What’s the hospitality sector looking like right now?

Dan: We’ve experienced a real turnaround in operating metrics due to the economy bottoming out, and the sector is much stronger. But now we’ve hit mid-year, and there’s a question as to where the economy is steering. The sector is very susceptible to immediate changes in the market, as rooms are re-priced every night. For instance, hotel room night demand on Sept. 12, 2001 was dramatically different from market demand that existed 48 hours earlier on Sept. 10.

B: How about transactions?

Dan: There’s a loosening up of debt, and the bid-ask spread has narrowed. Transactions have already started picking up: There were over 40 worth $10M or more in the first half of the year, including the$200M sale of the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City, the$155M sale of the Hilton Minneapolis, and the $95M sale of DC’sSofitel Lafayette Square. By comparison, during the first half of ‘09 there were merely a handful of transactions. At this point, even if we enter into a double-dip recession, there is perceived long-term upside in the market and it’s not a question of if, but when we recover. Simultaneously, the inventory of attractive opportunities remains fairly constrained, given the reluctance of lenders and others who control assets to dispose of them at today’s depressed pricing levels.

B: Who’s buying?

Dan: We’re seeing everyone from opportunity funds to private equity looking at hotels. There’s an awful lot of raised committed capital earmarked for hotel investment, and there will be opportunities for superior risk-adjusted returns and value-enhancement plays. Hotels are terrific hedges against inflation. Savvy hotel investors are looking in 24/7 downtown urban locations and cities with high barriers to entry. The value of many existing opportunities today is also below the replacement cost, and since construction financing isn’t available, it will be a long time before significant amounts of new hotel supply comes online.

B: What are the opportunities?

Dan: It’s anticipated that there will be desirable investment opportunities at all levels of the hotel capital stack. Such prospects include: origination of myriad lodging real estate loans, the acquisition of performing and non-performing hotel loans, structured mezzanine positions, and direct investment in individual assets and portfolios. Similar to the rebound from prior downturns, investors are seeking opportunities to inject capital in addition to acquisition costs, and to turnaround, reposition and/or rebranddistressed hotel assets with the goal of achieving maximum capital appreciation and, to a lesser extent, current income. As better assets are brought to market, competition to win bids will be stiff, as significant amounts of all types of stockpiled domestic and international capital looks to restructure or acquire US lodging value-enhancement opportunities.

B: Are there any particular investors who stand out?

Dan: Recently, we’ve seen an increase in hotel-centric REITs— smart money that knows and understands the hotel business, and has proven track record of public market success. For example,Pebblebrook Hotel Trust was founded by Jon Bortz, who previously founded and successfully grew LaSalle Hotel Properties (yesterday, Bisnow had an interview with Pebblebrook’s Ray Martzin our DC issue). This year, it purchased the 416-room Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco from Chartres Lodging Group for $90Mand the 269-room Doubletree Hotel in Bethesda from Thayer Lodging Group for $67.1M. Another recently minted hotel REIT with a proven hotel investment management team, Chesapeake Lodging Trust, recently purchased the 498-room Hyatt Regency in Boston from Hyatt for $112M.  For full report click here from Bisnow….

Built in 2002 on two acres of oceanfront property, the 409-room hotel has gone through a string of owners and legal battles.  A court-appointed receiver retained hotel investment services firm Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels as the agent for the foreclosure sale.  “The Royal Palm is an irreplaceable asset and represents a rare acquisition opportunity,” Gregory Rumpel, the firm’s executive vice president, said in a statement. “Hotels of this caliber are usually held by owners for long periods, and are seldom seen on the market.” Read more…

The formal auction is scheduled for mid-October; closing should occur by November.  The Oaktree-Avenue pairing beat out at least four other serious contenders for the coveted resort. In July, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Starwood Capital, Anschultz Entertainment Group, Huizenga Holdings and The Gary Player Group were among them. According to Bill Jones III, the fourth-generation Jones to run Sea Island, it’s business as usual for homeowners, visitors and employees of the upscale resort near Brunswick. “We’ve gone through a very difficult time, and I feel like we achieved the best possible outcome we possibly could, given the circumstances,” Jones said in an interview Wednesday with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’m sorry we’ve all been through this (but) we have the opportunity to build a new foundation … Sea Island has a bright future.”

Jones and Sea Island president David Bansmer will continue to run the resort that stretches across Sea Island and onto St. Simons Island. Jones sought to reassure homeowners and employees in separate meetings Wednesday at the Cloister, telling them their homes and 1,400 jobs won’t be threatened by new ownership.  “This could have been a horrible nightmare,” said Bob Prater, an Atlantan and Sea Island member for a dozen years. “(Jones) did the best he could under the circumstances.” Full report from AJC.com…

The extended-stay hotel recovery continues to gain momentum and set new records, according to The Highland Group’s 2010 U.S. Extended-Stay Lodging Mid-Year Report. Extended-stay hotel demand was up more than 16% for the second successive quarter and extended-stay hotel room nights accommodated were the highest ever reported for the first half of any year. Rates of demand growth not seen in at least a decade coupled with a sharp decline in new room openings produced strong increases in occupancy.

Average rates are still declining but at less than half the pace of the first quarter of 2010. Smith Travel Research (STR) reports that overall hotel average rates have turned positive over the same month in the prior year and they were flat in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009. Upscale extended-stay hotels are expected to follow a similar trend within the next 90 days and monthly average rate growth for economy and mid-price extended-stay hotels should turn positive before the end of 2010.

Growth in extended-stay hotel RevPar is accelerating. All segments posted RevPar growth in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009. With the number of extended-stay rooms under construction below 25% of their peak in 2008 and projections of further declines in the rate of supply growth, the outlook for continued increases in RevPar is very good.

• Extended-stay hotel supply increased 4.4% at the end of June 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.
• Extended-stay hotel demand increased 16.3% in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009. STR reports that overall US hotel demand grew 8.7% in the second quarter 2010.
• At 71.2% extended-stay hotel average occupancy is nearly 15 percentage points higher than the US hotel average.
• In the second quarter of 2010 extended-stay rate discounting decelerated to less than half the pace of the first quarter in 2010.
• Extended-stay hotel RevPar rose 7.5% in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009 and is up 4.3% year-to-date. However, RevPar is still more than 12% below peaks set in 2008.
• There were 6,838 extended-stay rooms under construction at the end of the second quarter 2010. This was a 61.9% decrease compared to one year ago and a more than a 40% decline compared to six months ago.
• Download the full report as a PDF.

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing isn’t expected until at least next month, the people said, cautioning that the talks are at an early stage. Highland could avoid bankruptcy court by raising more money to satisfy creditors, and the McLean, Va., company is in talks with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and other possible investors for an infusion of at least $200 million that would give Highland breathing room.  Spokespeople for JER, Highland’s creditors and Abu Dhabi declined to comment.  More from the WSJ online…

• Occupancies at hotels in small towns and near highways stayed essentially flat at 49% in the first six months of 2010. In contrast, occupancies rose to 65% up from 61% a year ago in big cities such as New York, Chicago and Washington.
• Hotel companies such as Marriott and Wyndham have reported stronger financial results for hotels that tend to be in big cities.  New York City hotel rates have been climbing since March, after almost a year and a half of declines.
• New York’s hotels filled 79% of rooms during the period, vs. 56% for the U.S. overall.  It’s worth noting what a critical role New York City – where a business travel rebound has been visible for months – plays in U.S. hotel performance stats.
• The 514 hotels in New York City account for just 1.9% of total U.S. room supply – and yet their revenue share is nearly 6%, Smith Travel Research exec Jan Freitag tells Bloomberg. When you exclude New York’s hotels, the average U.S. hotel rate dropped by 2.7%; when you include them it dropped by 2%.

“New York City is skewing the numbers,” David Loeb, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee tells Bloomberg. “Urban and suburban markets are doing the best while the others are recovering more slowly.”  The split outlook is being driven by broader trends in the U.S. economy.  ”The financial services industry is doing better, so that boosts travel to places like New York,” Loeb also says. “Manufacturing and agriculture or businesses that service the middle markets in America, on the other hand, aren’t doing that well. That’s what’s affecting the smaller markets.”  Click here for full report from USA Today…

Hotel-condominium tower in New York City filed suit against developer Donald Trump and others involved for inflating sales figures to entice them to buy units, several media outlets reporting.   Previous reports said that sales of the 391 residential units in the 46-story, condo-hotel tower were slow – even though the project had been announced on an episode of Donald Trump’s television show, “The Apprentice.”  The lawsuit says that 15 plaintiffs claim that when they signed contracts to buy units, they were falsely told that Trump SoHo’s residential units were “30, 40, 50, 60 percent or more sold,” Bloomberg reports. But later, the building’s backers disclosed that only about 15% of the units had been sold, the story says, citing court documents.

The buyers “never would have signed contracts if they knew only 10 percent of the units were sold, instead of the 50 or 60 percent they were told,” William Geller, a lawyer who’s representing the buyers, told the New York Times.   The buyers accuse the defendants of engaging “in a coordinated pattern of falsely overstating the number and percentage of Trump SoHo units sold,” the story says.  An e-mail message that Bloomberg sent to Rhona Graff, a spokeswoman for Trump, wasn’t immediately returned.

The 46-story building is the latest example of the fallout in hotel-condos, which were popular with developers during the heyday of easy credit. The development was announced on an episode of Donald Trump’s television show, “The Apprentice.”   Developers sought to sell the units —- with prices starting at $1.2 million for a studio —- to investors who would be allowed to stay in them up to 120 days a year, according to the report. The rest of the time, the units could be sold as hotel rooms under the Trump brand.

Bank of America recently dumped a loan on the project for a fraction of its $75 million value and the developer is in restructuring talks with other lenders, according to the Journal.  Trump is not a direct investor in the project, but has a hotel-management deal and licensing arrangement with the developers.  Other condo-hotels bearing his name have also been in trouble. The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Fort Lauderdale, faces foreclosure, the Journal says.  About 70% of the buyers of the units at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas didn’t close on their deals, and the developer was in restructuring talks with creditors last year.  For full report on both stories click here…

The billionaire Barclay brothers sold their 10 percent stake in the U.K.’s InterContinental Hotels Group for about 335 million pounds ($520 million) after the hotelier’s shares soared 88 percent in a year.  InterContinental tumbled 7.4 percent in London trading after Barclays Capital sold almost 30 million shares on behalf of Ellerman Corp., a company controlled by David and Frederick Barclay, for 1,120 pence apiece, according to three people familiar with the transaction.

Ellerman, the biggest shareholder in Windsor, England-based InterContinental, sold its entire stake following a 34 percent surge in the share price since the start of 2010. The Barclays built their stake in InterContinental in 2007, fuelling speculation that the brothers may make a bid for the hotelier.  Leslie McGibbon, a spokesman for InterContinental Hotels, declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News today. Calls to Ellerman were not returned.  InterContinental slumped 89 pence to 1,110 pence at the close of trading in London, the steepest percentage drop since June 4, 2007. That valued the company at 3.2 billion pounds.  Click here for full report from Bloomberg…

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