DALLAS, Sept. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ashford
Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE: AHT) ("Ashford Trust" or the
"Company") today announced that REIT industry participants have
already moved to emulate the revolutionary external advisory
agreement that it has developed for its spin-off of Ashford
Prime. While other externally-advised REITs are changing
their advisory agreements to look more like Ashford Trust's and to
be more aligned with shareholders, the structure that Ashford Trust
has developed for its spin-off of Ashford Prime continues to be the
industry benchmark in terms of advisor and management alignment
with shareholders.
Some of the features that continue to differentiate the Ashford
Prime external advisory agreement from other external advisory
agreements in the REIT industry include:
- External advisor owned by a publicly traded
company.
- Base management fee calculated on market-based total
enterprise value.
- Incentive fee based upon total stockholder return
outperformance compared to a peer group.
- Up to 50% of the incentive fee may be paid in common stock
or in common units of the Ashford Prime operating partnership, at
Ashford Prime's discretion and subject to certain
limitations.
- Significant advisor and employee ownership, the majority of
which will be partnership units which will not have any voting
power on matters voted on by stockholders.
- Advisory agreement can be terminated for a fee upon a change
of control of Ashford Prime.
"We decided on the externally-advised structure for Ashford
Prime for several reasons. The structure enables investors to
benefit from the experience of a management team with one of the
best track records in our sector, will reduce the G&A expense
burden by avoiding duplication, and provides for management
incentives only in the event of outperformance versus a
defined peer group," commented Monty J.
Bennett, Ashford Trust's Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer. "While we have already seen some other REIT
participants move to copy this revolutionary structure, we still
believe ours is the most shareholder-friendly and provides the
strongest alignment with shareholders in the REIT space. We
look forward to completing the spin-off of Ashford Prime sometime
in the fourth quarter."
Ashford Hospitality Trust is a real estate investment trust
(REIT) focused on investing opportunistically in the hospitality
industry across all segments and at all levels of the capital
structure primarily within the United
States.
Ashford Hospitality Prime will be a conservatively capitalized
real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investing in high
RevPAR full-service and urban select-service hotels located
predominantly in domestic and international gateway markets.
Follow Chairman and CEO Monty
Bennett on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MBennettAshford or
@MBennettAshford.
Certain statements and assumptions in this press release
contain or are based upon "forward-looking" information and are
being made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
forward-looking statements are subject to risks and
uncertainties. When we use the words "will likely result,"
"may," "anticipate," "estimate," "should," "expect," "believe,"
"intend," or similar expressions, we intend to identify
forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to
numerous assumptions and uncertainties, many of which are outside
Ashford's control.
These forward-looking statements are subject to known and
unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results
to differ materially from those anticipated, including, without
limitation: general volatility of the capital markets and the
market price of our common stock; changes in our business or
investment strategy; availability, terms and deployment of capital;
availability of qualified personnel; changes in our industry and
the market in which we operate, interest rates or the general
economy; the degree and nature of our competition; the satisfaction
of the conditions to the completion of the spin-off; and the
estimated timing of completion. These and other risk factors
are more fully discussed in Ashford's filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
The forward-looking statements included in this press release
are only made as of the date of this press release. Investors
should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements. We are not obligated to publicly update or revise
any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or circumstances, changes in
expectations or otherwise.
SOURCE Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc.