Travelodge will sell 49 of its hotels following the approval of its company voluntary arrangement (CVA). Of the company’s creditors, 97 per cent agreed to the CVA’s terms, which state that bank debt of £233m will be written off and £71m repaid, reducing the company’s debt from £633m to £329m.
Under the agreement, loan notes of £476m will be written off completely. The repayment date of the remaining debt will be extended to 2017, and the company will now look to transfer 49 of its 505 properties to other operators within the next six months. A further 109 hotels have been identified as being viable at a reduced equivalent monthly rent of 75 per cent.
The budget hotel chain hopes to secure a “long term future for the business” through the CVA, with £75m being injected into the company by new investors Goldman Sachs, GoldenTree Asset Management and Avenue Capital Group. Of this amount, £55m will be invested into a refurbishment of 11,000 rooms in 200 hotels.
Richard Fleming, UK head of restructuring at KPMG, said: “The impact of the economic downturn on Travelodge’s business has been compounded by a large debt burden and expensive lease arrangements. The CVA is one facet of a wider Travelodge restructuring plan to tackle those leases which are proving unsustainable, the majority of which were agreed during the pre-2008 property peaks.”
All of the Travelodge hotels currently trading will remain open and no job losses are foreseen, according to KPMG.