Another Blackstone Listing

I noted earlier this week that Blackstone plans four REIT IPOs in the near future.  Not included in the four was Extended Stay, the mid-priced lodging chain that Blackstone owns with investment firms Centerbridge Partners and Paulson & Co.   According to Bloomberg, Extended Stay seeks to raise up to $593 million in an IPO.  Extended Stay's ownership trail is amazing:

Extended Stay was founded 18 years ago by billionaire H. Wayne Huizenga and his longtime business associate George Johnson. The two formed the company in January 1995 and took it public that December with two properties, raising about $60 million. Johnson was chief executive officer of Extended Stay and Huizenga was chairman.

The company had expanded to 472 hotels by the time Blackstone bought it in May 2004 for $3.1 billion, after the 2001 terrorist attacks and recession had depressed travel and hotel-property values.

When the commercial property market peaked in 2007, Blackstone sold Extended Stay to Lightstone Group LLC for $8 billion. After the credit crisis hit, Lightstone couldn’t refinance Extended Stay’s debt and the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009.

The following year, Blackstone joined New York-based Centerbridge, a lender who had worked to restructure Extended Stay debt, and Paulson, the hedge fund firm led by billionaire John Paulson, to buy back the hotel chain at a bankruptcy auction for about $3.9 billion.

 Blackstone is expected to have an IPO for its Hilton Worldwide Holdings as early as December.