Ashford Hospitality Says Layoffs, Pay Cuts And New Revenue Streams Will Boost Shareholder Value
Ashford Hospitality Trust has a new plan to improve its finances and increase shareholder value as it stares down major debt maturities.
The Dallas-based REIT announced its “GRO AHT” initiative Tuesday as it looks to improve earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization through layoffs, slashing executive compensation packages, a “pricing audit” of its food and beverage earnings, adding revenue streams and more.
Ashford said the initiative centers around “three core pillars”: general and administrative reduction, revenue maximization and operational efficiency.
“While we expect to benefit from limited supply growth and other industry tailwinds in the coming years, we are targeting an incremental $50 million of EBITDA improvement to run-rate corporate EBITDA with this initiative — an increase of more than 20%, which we believe will have a transformative impact on our equity value and leverage metrics,” Ashford President and CEO Stephen Zsigray said in a statement.
The REIT has been working to sell assets and extend loans this year as it faces a large amount of maturing debt. In February, Ashford announced it would sell a dozen properties to pay down its $2.6B in debt slated to come due in 2026.
The latest sale was the 315-room Courtyard Boston Downtown hotel, which the REIT struck a $123M deal for earlier this month. The hotel’s buyer wasn’t disclosed, but Ashford said the sale is expected to close next month.
In February, Ashford sold the 390-room Hilton Boston Back Bay hotel to Certares Management and Belcourt Capital Partners for $171M as part of its plan to sell off properties.
To achieve significant reductions in corporate overhead, Ashford officials said they will be “substantially cutting” compensation for management and board members. The company also plans to reduce professional services expenses and negotiate to reduce advisory fees.
In addition to pricing audits of its existing revenue streams and rolling out new ones, the REIT’s revenue improvement plans include “aggressive sales efforts” to increase market share by more than 200 basis points next year.
Ashford officials said the company has completed layoffs but still plans to make changes to the company’s paid-time-off policies that will reduce payroll expenses and help the REIT operate more efficiently. Property managers will also be rolling out measures to improve productivity and reduce costs, including reductions to labor costs by changing its overtime and contract labor usage.
“As we near repayment of our corporate strategic financing — the primary focus of our efforts in 2024, we are excited to partner with our advisor and property managers to deliver on this next initiative,” Zsigray said. “We are turning the page on COVID and look forward to beginning the next chapter for Ashford Trust."
Last month, the REIT worked out a 90-day forbearance agreement and announced it was in talks on a multiyear extension for a $409.8M CMBS loan secured by 17 hotels that was previously set to mature Nov. 9.
