Home Inns Attracts Six Senior Lenders to Buyout Loan

Six banks have joined Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc. (HMIN)’s about $250 million acquisition loan as senior lenders and underwriters, in addition to original arrangers Credit Suisse Group AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co., said a person familiar with the matter.

The loan pays a so-called all-in rate of about 450 basis points over the London interbank offered rate, the person said, asking not to be identified as details are private.

Each of the banks joining as senior lenders are targeting to hold about $30 million, said the person. The hold is the amount of a loan banks intend to retain on their balance sheet rather than selling to other banks in general syndication.

A decision on whether the loan will be opened to general syndication has not yet been made.

Home Inns, which operates 934 hotels across 164 cities in China according to its website, agreed to buy budget hotel chain operator Motel 168 in May for $470 million in cash, debt and shares. The deal “will create the most geographically diverse economy hotel operation in China,” Home Inns said in a May 27 statement. Home Inns received antitrust approval on Sept. 2 for the planned acquisition, which is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Wendy Mock in Hong Kong at wmock3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Katrina Nicholas at knicholas2@bloomberg.net