US luxury hotel owner Strategic Hotels and Resorts may take on up to $400 million in extra debt for strategic asset buys, mainly in the United States, having just extended a wave of debt maturities previously due in 2011-13.
"We have half a billion dollars of liquidity," Chief Executive Laurence Geller told Reuters in an interview at London's Marriott Grosvenor Square hotel, one of the Chicago-based company's 17 properties.
"We can use it (the liquidity) for acquisitions, we've got the opportunity if opportunities come up to buy but we will also use some of it for internal expansion," he said.
Of the $500 million in liquidity, $100 million would come from the company's existing cash pile, while $300 million was available via a credit facility secured in July, Geller said.
He said the final $100 million could be raised by taking debt against two of its US hotels - the Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley and Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole. At present, neither hotel had debt secured against it, Geller said.
Acquisitions were likely to be in the United States, where the rump of its portfolio is located, rather than Europe.
"We only have to buy if the project is strategic, in low supply markets, has significant room for internal growth and meets our set internal return targets," Geller said.
"Let them (sellers) come to me, I don't need to chase properties now because we've got enough money to do refurbishing, we can pay down our debt as we go along."
Strategic Hotels' rekindling appetite for deals follows a difficult three-year period, during which it renegotiated looming repayment deadlines for about $1.8 billion of debt. It now has no major debt repayment deadlines until 2016.
The company further stabilised its position by selling its Paris and Prague properties, and by buying hotels in exchange for shares in the company.
"It's like you fall off the cliff and you grab a branch half way down," Geller said. "I keep crawling back up, refinancing and it's now a very healthy company with lots of liquidity."
At end - June, the company's total debt was $1.28 billion, or about 60 percent of its $2.13 billion of total assets.