Amid the success of its non-core hotel disposition program, CorePoint Lodging's Board of Directors continues to weigh new strategic alternatives.
The real estate investment trust, which is concentrated on select-service midscale and upper midscale hotels, announced its board's plan in a news release on July 14.
On a call to discuss second quarter earnings with analysts, CorePoint President and CEO Keith Cline said the board "intends to consider a full range of available strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value, including a potential sale of the company, or other transactions."
"There's no set timetable for the board to review alternatives, and there can be no assurance that the exploration of strategic alternatives will result in any transaction or other actions," he said.
Cline added that the company would not make additional comments about the strategic review due to its ongoing nature.
Disposition Program
The REIT has sold or put under contract 85% of the 210 hotels identified as non-core assets since the start of the disposition program in 2019, according to the company's earnings release.
Year to date, the company has sold 42 hotels for $229 million in gross proceeds and has an additional 37 hotels under contract, expected to generate $234 million in gross proceeds.
The company sold 25 hotels during the second quarter for $143 million in total gross proceeds and sold an additional eight hotels subsequent to the end of the quarter.
CorePoint has had strong interest from buyers since the start of the disposition program, Cline said. The composition of the buyer pool has stayed consistent, "but the things are accelerating a little bit as you would expect, given the general trend that we're seeing as a business and what continues to be a very nice debt market for the buyer pool that we're dealing with," he said.
Results
The performance of CorePoint's select-service hotels has strengthened sequentially during its peak season, which normally runs from March through October, Cline said.
He added leisure travel still represents more than two-thirds of the company's bookings and weekends are still outperforming weekdays.
CorePoint's top-performing markets include Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Austin and San Antonio, Texas; and San Diego.
The company has also experienced some recovery in certain segments of corporate travel related to essential business, Cline said.
Comparable revenue per available room for the quarter increased 137.8% over the same period of 2020, according to the earnings release. This was driven by a 34% increase in comparable average daily rate and a 2,750 basis point increase in comparable occupancy. Compared to the second quarter of 2019, RevPAR was down 14.7%.
As of press time, CorePoint's stock was trading at $13.78 a share, up 114.6% year to date. The New York Stock Exchange Composite was up 16.1% for the same period.