Fortress Buys Intrawest $$$

[MoNtY]

Here's the details:

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Fortress Investment Group LLC, a private-equity firm, agreed to buy resort owner Intrawest Corp. for $1.8 billion to add properties such as Whistler Blackcomb mountain, a ski venue for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Fortress, which once loaned money to pop star Michael Jackson, will pay $35 a share in cash, the companies said today in a statement. That's 20 percent more than Intrawest's closing stock price on Feb. 27, the day before it said it may put itself up for sale. Fortress also will assume $950 million of Vancouver- based Intrawest's debt.

Intrawest is New York-based Fortress's first publicly disclosed acquisition of a resort owner and comes as rising U.S. travel and room occupancies lure buyout firms to the industry. Private-equity firms have announced $8.9 billion of lodging deals this year, compared with $6.5 billion in the same period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

``It's more than the assets that Fortress is buying,'' said Michael Smith, an analyst with National Bank Financial in Toronto, who rates the shares ``tender'' and doesn't own any. ``They're also buying the platform from Intrawest, which is known as a good resort operator.''

Fortress manages $23 billion in assets, including real estate, hedge funds and distressed debt. It was founded in 1998 by Wesley Edens, Robert Kauffman and Randal Nardone, who had previously worked together at BlackRock Asset Investors, a New York-based private-equity fund.

Beatles Songs

The firm, which discloses few details about its investments, once held $270 million in loans to Jackson secured in part by his 50 percent stake of the Beatles song catalog. Jackson restructured the debt in April as part of an agreement with Sony Corp., which owned the other half of the catalog.

Lilly Donohue, a managing director at Fortress, declined to comment on the Intrawest deal.

The lodging industry is recovering from a five-year slump triggered by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Hotel acquisitions may surpass $60 billion in 2006, above last year's record $45 billion, according to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, a unit of the Chicago-based real estate brokerage company.

The biggest hotel buyouts this year include Blackstone Group LP's $2.6 billion takeover of MeriStar Hospitality Corp., which operates 57 hotels including the Doral Desert Princess Report in Palm Springs, California. Last year Blackstone bought 29 U.S. properties from Wyndham Hotel Corp. for $3.2 billion.

Pirate Pleased

Intrawest, which owns 10 ski resorts in North America, in February said it hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to examine mergers or a possible sale. The 30-year-old company may need partners to fund its development plans, Chief Executive Officer Joseph Houssian said in a February interview. The transaction is expected to close in October.

``We think it's a great price,'' said Stephanie Tran, an analyst at Norwalk, Connecticut-based Pirate Capital LLC, Intrawest's largest shareholder, with 16.9 percent of the stock. Pirate, an activist hedge fund with $1.8 billion in assets, had pressed Intrawest for a sale.

Intrawest's North American resorts include Colorado's Winter Park, Vermont's Stratton Mountain, Quebec's Mont-Tremblant and Florida's Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort.

Shares of Intrawest rose $7.68 to $34.19 at 12:35 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Before today, they had declined 8.4 percent this year, compared with the 5.8 percent gain in the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index.

Team Fortress

At Fortress, Edens runs private-equity investments. Kauffman oversees European activities, while Nardone is head of its legal and structured finance unit. Other principals include former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner Peter Briger, who leads distressed-debt investments, and Michael Novogratz, who oversees global macro strategies at the firm's hedge-fund unit.

Goldman Sachs acted as financial adviser and McCarthy Tetrault acted as legal adviser for Intrawest. Lehman Brothers Inc. was financial adviser and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Goodmans LLP acted as legal advisers to Fortress.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...bdQ&refer=home

[Cyber Cop]

I did not know that. No, wait... I did.

[splat]

It's asolutely amazing what a podunk little resort near Canmore can do when they put their minds to it.

[ak_powder_monkey]

why didn't i invest in interwest a month ago

[irul&ublo]

why didn't i invest in interwest a month ago

Hey AKPM....while there are many theories on investing, one rule spans them all: never invest in anything you can't spell.

[L7]

It's asolutely amazing what a podunk little resort near Canmore can do when they put their minds to it.

You sure know a lot of little canadian details. Fortress was actually first owned by Aspen Corp with the Alberta development fund or whatever it was. Somewhere there was nearly a connection with Blackcomb and fortress in the early or mid eighties (pre coulliards and very pre RCR) but I can't remember the details.