Hersha Hospitality Trust Announces the Refinancing of Seven New York City Hotels Owned in a Joint Venture With Cindat Capital Management

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 12, 2018 --

Hersha Hospitality Trust (NYSE:HT) (“Hersha” or the “Company”), owner of high quality upscale hotels in urban gateway markets and coastal destinations, today announced that it has successfully refinanced the existing debt on seven assets in Manhattan owned in an existing joint venture with Cindat Capital Management Limited (“Cindat”), a global investment management platform.

Mr. Jay H. Shah, Hersha’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are extremely pleased to have accessed the capital markets at a very opportune time.  Through this refinancing we have lowered the weighted average cost of borrowing, increased the duration of our debt and entered into a capital structure that provides the joint venture significantly more financial flexibility going forward.  In addition, we have also successfully redeemed all of our preferred equity in the joint venture, providing Hersha with additional capital to pursue other opportunities in our existing portfolio.”

The joint venture entered into a new $300 million mortgage loan and $85 million of mezzanine financing and refinanced the prior $285 million aggregate senior loan and term loan, the $50 million mezzanine loan and redeemed $43.2 million of Hersha’s 9% cumulative redeemable preferred interest in the joint venture.

Hunton & Williams LLP served as legal counsel to Hersha on the transaction, while Sidley Austin LLP served as legal counsel to Cindat. 

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Hersha Hospitality Trust (HT) is a self-advised real estate investment trust in the hospitality sector, which owns and operates high quality upscale hotels in urban gateway markets and coastal destinations. The Company's 49 hotels totaling 7,584 rooms are located in New York, Washington, DC, Boston, Philadelphia, South Florida and select markets on the West Coast. The Company's common shares are traded on The New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “HT”.  For more information on the Company, and the Company’s hotel portfolio, please visit the Company's website at www.hersha.com

Contact:    Ashish Parikh, Chief Financial Officer
                 Greg Costa, Manager of Investor Relations & Finance
                 Phone: (215) 238-1046

Cindat Capital Management Ltd. (Cindat) is a global asset manager founded in 2013 with a mandate to guide and safeguard institutional capital in cross-border investments in and out of China. Since inception, it has invested over $1.8 billion of equity capital in more than $7.8 billion worth of real estate-related assets in the US, UK, Australia, and China. Cindat is headquartered in Beijing, with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, London and Shanghai. www.cindat.com

Contact:    Cindat USA LLC, 375 Park Avenue, 3703
                  Ryan Levine
                  212 471.9662
                  [email protected]

Forward Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and, as such, may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results or performance to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statement.  For a description of these factors, please review the information under the heading “Risk Factors” included in Hersha Hospitality Trust’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and subsequent reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time.