Summit Hotel Properties Reports First Quarter 2014 Results

Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. (NYSE:INN) (the “Company”) today announced results for the first quarter 2014.

“In the first quarter, we continued to make solid progress on all of our key operating and strategic objectives,” said Dan Hansen, Summit’s President and CEO. “Our portfolio recorded strong gains in RevPAR, driven by growth in both average daily rates and occupancy. As a result, we generated a healthy increase in our hotel EBITDA margins, excluding the hotels under renovation, and our New Orleans hotels, which had benefited from the Super Bowl in the prior year.”

The Company’s results included the following:

1 See tables later in this press release for a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures including net income (loss) to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”), adjusted EBITDA, funds from operations (“FFO”), FFO per diluted unit, adjusted FFO, adjusted FFO per diluted unit and hotel EBITDA (hotel revenues less hotel operating expenses).

² Unless stated otherwise in this release, all pro forma information includes operating results for 89 hotels owned as of March 31, 2014 as if each hotel had been owned by the Company since January 1, 2013, and excludes the 178-guestroom Hampton Inn located in Fort Smith, Ark. that was held for sale at March 31, 2014. As a result, these pro forma operating measures include operating results for certain hotels for periods prior to the Company’s ownership.

First Quarter 2014 Highlights

• Same-Store RevPAR: Same-store revenue per available room (“RevPAR”) in the first quarter of 2014 grew to $80.12, an increase of 8.4 percent over the same period in 2013. Same-store average daily rate (“ADR”) grew to $110.01, an increase of 4.6 percent from the first quarter of 2013. Same-store occupancy grew by 256 basis points to 72.8 percent.
• Pro Forma RevPAR: Pro forma RevPAR in the first quarter of 2014 grew to $85.76, an increase of 7.5 percent over the same period in 2013. Pro forma ADR grew to $118.98, an increase of 4.0 percent from 2013. Pro forma occupancy grew by 233 basis points to 72.1 percent.
• Pro Forma Hotel EBITDA: Pro forma hotel EBITDA for the first quarter of 2014 was $30.0 million, an increase of 6.0 percent over the same period of 2013.
• Pro Forma Hotel EBITDA Margin: Pro forma hotel EBITDA margin in the first quarter of 2014 contracted by 42 basis points compared with the same period in 2013. Pro forma hotel EBITDA margin improved by 163 basis points when excluding the 11 properties under renovation during the quarter as well as the five New Orleans, La. properties which benefited from the Super Bowl in first quarter of 2013. Pro forma hotel EBITDA margin is defined as pro forma hotel EBITDA as a percentage of pro forma total revenue.
• Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA increased to $27.2 million in the first quarter of 2014 from $18.9 million in the same period in 2013, an increase of $8.3 million or 44.0 percent.
• Adjusted FFO: Adjusted funds from operations (“AFFO”) for the first quarter of 2014 was $16.7 million or $0.19 per diluted unit.
• Acquisitions: The Company acquired four hotels in the first quarter of 2014 comprising 591 guestrooms, for a total purchase price of $125.7 million.

Capital Investment

Acquisitions

During the first quarter of 2014, the Company completed four acquisitions, comprising a total 591 guestrooms, for a total purchase price of $125.7 million.

Pro forma RevPAR among the 23 hotels acquired since January 2013 was $97.50 in the first quarter of 2014 compared to $80.12 for the 66 hotels classified as same-store during the period.

Mr. Hansen continued, “We are pleased with our acquisition activity in the first quarter of the year, including the three hotels in California which continues our expansion on the West Coast. Looking to the balance of the year, we continue to see a solid pipeline of potential transactions to further grow our portfolio.”

Renovation Capital

The Company invested $16.8 million on renovations in the first quarter of 2014. Among the 11 renovations during the quarter, scope of work ranged from common space improvements to complete guestroom renovations, including furniture, soft goods and guest bathrooms.

The Company completed a full renovation of its 80 percent owned Holiday Inn Express & Suites located in San Francisco, Calif. during the first quarter of 2014. The property was updated to include a re-designed lobby and common areas. The Company expanded and upgraded the business center and meeting space to service the business transient guests. All guestrooms were updated including all new furniture and beds, carpeting, 42” flat screen televisions, wall coverings, and bathroom vanities and lighting. The fitness center was upgraded, including new weights, benches and cardio equipment featuring personal viewing screens. The renovation was completed with fresh exterior paint in March of 2014 for a total cost of $4.3 million.

”Our completed renovation of the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in San Francisco is a prime example of the opportunity we have within our portfolio to execute upgrades and renovations to improve the quality and value of our portfolio” Hansen said. “We completed 11 projects in the first quarter, and our team continues to execute these improvement programs in order to drive revenue growth, operating margins and value across our portfolio.”

Dispositions

• On January 17, 2014, the Company sold two hotels with a total of 146 guestrooms for a combined selling price of $3.1 million.

Balance Sheet and Capital Activity

At March 31, 2014, the Company had total outstanding debt of $567.4 million and $36.6 million of cash and cash equivalents. Given the properties included in the borrowing base at March 31, 2014, maximum borrowing capacity was $300.0 million under the senior unsecured credit facility, including both the revolver and term portions of the facility. At March 31, 2014, the Company had $166.0 million outstanding on its senior unsecured credit facility, $13.9 million in standby letters of credit and $120.1 million available to borrow. In addition, the Company had nine unencumbered hotels.

• The Company’s weighted average interest rate on its debt outstanding at March 31, 2014 was 4.61 percent.
• At March 31, 2014, the Company’s total net debt to trailing twelve month adjusted EBITDA was 5.2x.
• As of May 12, 2014, the Company has $141.0 million drawn, including the $75.0 million unsecured term loan and $13.9 million in standby letters of credit, and has $145.1 million available to borrow on its revolving credit facility.

Dividends

• On May 6, 2014, the Company declared an $0.1125 per share quarterly dividend on its common stock, a $0.578125 per share quarterly dividend on its 9.25 percent Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock, a $0.4921875 per share quarterly dividend on its 7.875 percent Series B Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock, and a $0.4453125 per share quarterly dividend on its 7.125 percent Series C Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock. Based on the closing price of the Company’s common stock on May 9, 2014, the annualized dividend yield on the Company’s common stock was 4.9 percent.

Subsequent Events

• On May 6, 2014, the Company closed on a $25.0 million term loan with Compass Bank. The loan matures on May 6, 2020 and bears interest at a variable rate of 30-day LIBOR plus 240 basis points. This loan is secured by three properties: the 105-guestroom Hampton Inn & Suites Fort Worth, Tex., the 108-guestroom Hampton Inn & Suites San Diego (Poway), Calif. and the 115-guestroom Hampton Inn & Suites Ventura (Camarillo), Calif. Net proceeds from this loan were used to pay down on the senior unsecured credit facility.

2014 Outlook

The Company is providing guidance for the second quarter and full year 2014 based on 89 current hotels.¹ Except as described in footnote one below, it assumes no additional hotels are acquired or sold and no additional issuances of equity securities.

¹ Pro forma information includes operating results for 89 hotels owned as of March 31, 2014 as if each hotel had been owned by the Company since January 1, 2013 and excludes the 178-guestroom Hampton Inn located in Fort Smith, Ark. that was held for sale at March 31, 2014. As a result, these pro forma operating measures include operating results for certain hotels for periods prior to the Company’s ownership.

² The Company includes the 178-guestroom Hampton Inn, Fort Smith, Ark. in Adjusted FFO calculations; however, this property is excluded from all pro forma calculations as noted in footnote one above.

3 Assumes weighted average diluted common units of 86,626,000 for second quarter 2014; 86,616,000 for full year 2014.

First Quarter 2014 Conference Call

The Company will conduct its quarterly conference call on Monday, May 12, 2014 at 12:00pm EST. To participate in the conference call please dial 877-299-4454. The participant passcode for the call is 58133486. Additionally, a live webcast of the call will be available through the Company’s website, www.shpreit.com. A replay of the conference call will be available until 11:59pm EST Monday, May 26, 2014 by dialing 888-286-8010; participant passcode 51514679. A replay of the conference call will also be available on the Company’s website until August 5, 2014.

About Summit Hotel Properties

Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. is a publicly-traded real estate investment trust focused primarily on acquiring and owning premium-branded, select-service hotels in the upscale and upper midscale segments of the lodging industry. As of May 12, 2014, the Company’s portfolio consisted of 90 hotels with a total of 11,353 guestrooms located in 22 states. Since its initial public offering in February 2011, the Company has acquired 47 hotel properties, totaling 6,539 guestrooms for a total purchase price of $916.7 million.

For additional information, please visit the Company’s website, www.shpreit.com and follow on Twitter at @SummitHotel_INN.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “potential,” “intend,” “expect,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “approximately,” “believe,” “could,” “project,” “predict,” “forecast,” “continue,” “plan” or other similar words or expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and can include future expectations, future plans and strategies, financial and operating projections or other forward-looking information. Examples of forward-looking statements include the following: projections of the Company’s revenues and expenses, capital expenditures or other financial items; descriptions of the Company’s plans or objectives for future operations, acquisitions, dispositions, financings or services; forecasts of the Company’s future financial performance and potential increases in average daily rate, occupancy, RevPAR, room supply and demand, funds from operations and adjusted funds from operations; U.S. GDP growth; estimated sources and uses of available capital; and descriptions of assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing expectations regarding the timing of their occurrence. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, not all of which are known to the Company and many of which are beyond the Company’s control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the state of the U.S. economy, supply and demand in the hotel industry and other factors as are described in greater detail in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Unless legally required, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For information about the Company’s business and financial results, please refer to the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” sections of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013 filed with the SEC and its quarterly and other periodic filings with the SEC. The Company undertakes no duty to update the statements in this release to conform the statements to actual results or changes in the Company’s expectations.

1 The Company includes the outstanding units of limited partnership interest (“OP units”) in Summit Hotel OP, LP, the Company’s operating partnership, because the OP units are redeemable for shares of the Company’s common stock.

1 Pro forma information includes operating results for 89 hotels owned as of March 31, 2014 as if each hotel had been owned by the Company since January 1, 2013 and excludes the 178-guestroom Hampton Inn located in Fort Smith, Ark. that was held for sale at March 31, 2014. As a result, these pro forma operating measures include operating results for certain hotels for periods prior to the Company’s ownership.

1 Pro forma information includes operating results for 89 hotels owned as of March 31, 2014 as if each hotel had been owned by the Company since January 1, 2013, and excludes the 178-guestroom Hampton Inn located in Fort Smith, Ark. that was held for sale at March 31, 2014. As a result, these pro forma operating measures include operating results for certain hotels for periods prior to the Company’s ownership.

2 For purposes of this press release, same-store information includes operating results for hotel properties owned at all times by the Company during the three-month period ended March 31, 2014 and 2013 and excludes the 178-guestroom Hampton Inn located in Fort Smith, Ark. that was held for sale at March 31, 2014.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

FFO and Adjusted FFO (“AFFO”)

As defined by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, or NAREIT, funds from operations, or FFO, represents net income or loss (computed in accordance with GAAP), excluding gains (or losses) from sales of property, plus depreciation and amortization. We present FFO because we consider it an important supplemental measure of our operational performance and believe it is frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of REITs, many of which present FFO when reporting their results. FFO is intended to exclude GAAP historical cost depreciation and amortization, which assumes that the value of real estate assets diminishes ratably over time. Historically, however, real estate values have risen or fallen with market conditions. Because FFO excludes depreciation and amortization unique to real estate, gains and losses from property dispositions and impairment losses, it provides a performance measure that, when compared year over year, reflects the effect to operations from trends in occupancy, room rates, operating costs, development activities and interest costs, providing perspective not immediately apparent from net income. Our computation of FFO may differ from the methodology for calculating FFO utilized by other equity REITs and, accordingly, may not be comparable to such other REITs because the amount of depreciation and amortization we add back to net income or loss includes amortization of deferred financing costs and amortization of franchise royalty fees. FFO should not be considered as an alternative to net income (loss) (computed in accordance with GAAP) as an indicator of our liquidity, nor is it indicative of funds available to fund our cash needs, including our ability to pay dividends or make distributions.

We further adjust FFO for certain additional items that are not included in the definition of FFO, such as hotel transaction and pursuit costs, equity based compensation, loan transaction costs, prepayment penalties and certain other expenses, which we refer to as AFFO. We believe that AFFO provides investors with another financial measure that may facilitate comparisons of operating performance between periods and between REITs.

We caution investors that amounts presented in accordance with our definitions of FFO and AFFO may not be comparable to similar measures disclosed by other companies, since not all companies calculate this non-GAAP measure in the same manner. FFO and AFFO should not be considered as an alternative measure of our net income (loss) or operating performance. FFO and AFFO may include funds that may not be available for our discretionary use due to functional requirements to conserve funds for capital expenditures, property acquisitions, debt service obligations and other commitments and uncertainties. Although we believe that FFO and AFFO can enhance your understanding of our financial condition and results of operations, this non-GAAP financial measure is not necessarily a better indicator of any trend as compared to a comparable GAAP measure such as net income (loss). Above we have included a quantitative reconciliation of FFO and AFFO to the most directly comparable GAAP financial performance measure, which is net income (loss). Dollar amounts in such reconciliation are in thousands.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, and Hotel EBITDA

EBITDA represents net income or loss, excluding: (i) interest, (ii) income tax expense and (iii) depreciation and amortization. We believe EBITDA is useful to an investor in evaluating our operating performance because it provides investors with an indication of our ability to incur and service debt, to satisfy general operating expenses, to make capital expenditures and to fund other cash needs or reinvest cash into our business. We also believe it helps investors meaningfully evaluate and compare the results of our operations from period to period by removing the effect of our asset base (primarily depreciation and amortization) from our operating results. Our management also uses EBITDA as one measure in determining the value of acquisitions and dispositions. We further adjust EBITDA by adding back hotel transaction and pursuit costs, equity based compensation, impairment losses, and certain other nonrecurring expenses. We believe that adjusted EBITDA provides investors with another financial measure that may facilitate comparisons of operating performance between periods and between REITs.

With respect to hotel EBITDA, we believe that excluding the effect of corporate-level expenses, non-cash items, and the portion of these items related to discontinued operations, provides a more complete understanding of the operating results over which individual hotels and operators have direct control. We believe the property-level results provide investors with supplemental information on the ongoing operational performance of our hotels and effectiveness of the third-party management companies operating our business on a property-level basis.

We caution investors that amounts presented in accordance with our definitions of EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and hotel EBITDA may not be comparable to similar measures disclosed by other companies, since not all companies calculate this non-GAAP measure in the same manner. EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and hotel EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative measure of our net income (loss) or operating performance. EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and hotel EBITDA may include funds that may not be available for our discretionary use due to functional requirements to conserve funds for capital expenditures and property acquisitions and other commitments and uncertainties. Although we believe that EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and hotel EBITDA can enhance your understanding of our financial condition and results of operations, this non-GAAP financial measure is not necessarily a better indicator of any trend as compared to a comparable GAAP measure such as net income (loss). Above we include a quantitative reconciliation of EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and hotel EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP financial performance measure, which is net income (loss). Dollar amounts in such reconciliation are in thousands.