Interstate Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: IHR), a leading hotel real estate investor and the nation’s largest independent hotel management company, today announced that it has signed a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by Hotel Acquisition Company, LLC, a 50/50 joint venture between subsidiaries of Thayer Hotel Investors V-A LP, a private equity fund sponsored by Thayer Lodging Group, and Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels (Group) Company Limited (“Jin Jiang Hotels”) in a transaction valued at approximately $307 million. Under the agreement, Hotel Acquisition Company, LLC would acquire all of the outstanding common stock and operating partnership units of Interstate for $2.25 per share in an all cash transaction. The price represents a premium of 77 percent over yesterday’s closing stock price. Interstate’s lenders have approved the transaction subject to certain pay downs at closing on its senior credit facility and on one of its non-recourse mortgage loans. The transaction is not contingent upon obtaining any additional financing.

Canyon Capital Realty Advisors (CCRA), through its Canyon Value Opportunity Fund, has acquired Hotel 71, a 437-room, 40-story independent hotel strategically located on Wacker Drive one block from Michigan Avenue in Chicago, IL.  The hotel is within walking distance to over 121 million square feet of office space within the “Loop,” the Chicago Board of Trade and Mercantile Exchange, and the retail, cultural, and dining amenities within the internationally-renowned “Magnificent Mile”.

The value of global hotel investment deals has slumped by 64 per cent this year but the market is expected to rebound in 2010, according to an annual transactions review by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.

Starwood has revealed that is focusing a large part of its development resources on the Chinese market, and sees expansion in the country as the key driver for the company’s global growth.

Louis Sailer is the new CEO of Singapore-based Fullerton Hotels. BTN met up with the veteran of five-star hospitality to find out his thoughts on the industry as well as his grand plans for expanding the Fullerton portfolio worldwide.

A group of investors is pooling up to €500m to buy troubled European hotels in the belief that the hospitality market is poised for a rebound. Avingstone Financial has earmarked its intention to buy a series of four and five hotels over the next two years.