By: Brown Rudnick
In one of the largest real estate financings this year, international law firm Brown Rudnick advised London-based private equity firm Queensgate Investments (Queensgate) on a nearly $800 million global refinancing of Generator Hostels (Generator), a lifestyle hospitality platform which owns, operates and develops assets across Europe and North America.
Brown Rudnick assisted Queensgate with the arrangement and structuring of the global financing, as well as the legal execution. This landmark transaction further cements the Firm’s position as a go-to powerhouse for real estate financing deals, which consistently exceed £1 billion in value each year, and as a trusted advisor that delivers successful outcomes for a wide range of corporate and investor clients.
The transaction, which involved 13 jurisdictions worldwide, featured a combination of European debt facilities (denominated in euros, pounds and Danish krones) and private bond issuances of approximately €450 million ($480 million) for Generator’s European arm, which was backed by Ares Management, and U.S. debt facilities of circa. €312 million ($331 million) for Generator’s U.S. arm, which was backed by Generator’s existing lenders Waterfall Asset Management and Värde Partners.
Generator’s strong performance post-Covid has enabled Queensgate to refinance Generator’s global debt with direct lenders in a challenging financial market.
Queensgate acquired the European arm of Generator in March 2017, with traditional senior financing from lenders including Société Générale, London Branch and HSBC Bank plc, as well as mezzanine financing from Apollo Global Management; Queensgate later made a series of well-timed acquisitions of U.S. assets throughout 2018 and 2019, including acquiring Freehand Hotels in October 2019, owner of the Paramount Hotel in New York, all of which Brown Rudnick advised on.
Jason Kow, founder and CEO of Queensgate, said: “This is one of the largest and most innovative real estate financings that the market has seen this year, involving multiple outgoing lenders across 13 jurisdictions globally. We are hugely grateful to our longstanding trusted advisor Brown Rudnick for its commitment to getting this important and sizeable transaction over the line. Tuvi and his team’s understanding of our business and the market is second to none and their laser sharp focus on execution, experience and responsiveness makes them our partner of choice.”