Bankers Doing Bond Deals Caught Out by New Era of Issuer Clauses
Message to bond underwriters: Some big customers are sizing up your ESG credentials.
Latest Videos
The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Message to bond underwriters: Some big customers are sizing up your ESG credentials.
Joe Biden’s allies are racing to blunt the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., casting his third-party effort as a stalking-horse bid designed to boost Donald Trump’s chances — even as his wide-ranging policy positions make him a threat to both.
Chengdu, a major city in the southwest China, removed home-buying curbs, joining dozens of peers in the country in an attempt to revive real estate demand and boost economic growth.
China Vanke Co. made a rare response to Moody’s downgrade last week, citing support from financial institutions and its biggest shareholder.
Billionaires who built their fortunes rolling out wireless networks when debt cost almost nothing are seeing their wealth crimped by higher borrowing costs and caution among money managers on the outlook for the industry.
Nov 27, 2017
The Associated Press
,WASHINGTON -- Owners of the Trump International Hotel in Panama are working to strip President Donald Trump's name from the 70-story building and fire the hotel management company run by Trump's family. The property once paid at least $32 million to associate with Trump.
The uprising by Panama hotel owners -- following news that Trump was effectively being paid to end a similar management contract for the Trump Soho hotel in New York -- points to continued struggles for the Trump brand outside strongholds like Mar-a-Lago in Florida and the Trump Hotel in Washington.
The Trump Organization acknowledged to The Associated Press the effort to strip away the Panama property's management and brand. It said it believed the move was a contract violation.
"Not only do we have a valid, binding and enforceable long-term management agreement, but any suggestion that the hotel is not performing up to expectations is belied by the actual facts," the Trump Organization said in a statement.
Located on Panama City's waterfront, the Trump hotel is within a 70-story tower in the shape of a wind-filled sail. Despite lavish amenities -- visitors can sip drinks next to a 65th-floor, edgeless pool that appears to float above the ocean -- it has struggled with poor occupancy.
"I bought there because I thought Trump's name made it a safe investment," said Al Monstavicius, a retired Nevada doctor who owns a penthouse hotel unit in the Panama project. "But Latinos are a real problem for him in Panama."
Before the bulks sale of previously unsold units until earlier this year, the owners of the remaining units in the 369-room condominium hotel lacked the votes to control its management. In August, investment firm Ithaca Capital Partners of Miami, Florida, paid the Panama project's struggling developer an undisclosed sum for the property's restaurants, conference centre and 202 long-unsold condo hotel units, giving Ithaca a singlehanded majority of the hotel owners' votes.
At the time of the purchase, Ithaca's managing director, Orestes Fintiklis, said his firm looked forward to working with both the other unit owners and Trump's management team. At an owners meeting in October, however, Ithaca's representatives proposed removing the Trump Organization's directors from the hotel board and sending a notice of default to Trump, the first step in terminating Trump's relationship with the property.
Ithaca did not respond to emails last week and Monday, and there is no public listing for the company or its managing director. No one voted against Ithaca's proposal, according to three people who were present or voted by proxy.
"They were given 30 days to cure," said Jeffrey Rabiea, a New York businessman who owns three units in the building. It was unclear whether owners sent Trump a formal default notice. Rabiea said Ithaca and the owners were already searching for a new hotel operator to run the property under a different brand.
Monstavicius, who said occupancy in his penthouse hotel suite has been running at only 30 per cent in recent months, praised the move to oust Trump.
"It can't get any worse," said Monstavicius.
Both men, along with another owner who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity over litigation concerns, said that their units were not profitable with occupancy rates too low even to cover the cost of their units' maintenance.
Owners of apartments and hotel units at the Panama property have previously complained about problems with Trump's management. The AP reported in October 2015 -- when Trump was a candidate for president -- that owners of apartments in the building had revolted over alleged mismanagement, firing Trump's manager from the building's overall board of directors.
Trump responded with an arbitration demand for millions of dollars in damages, but the claim was ultimately settled and Trump remained manager of the hotel component of the tower.
Trump's company at the time threatened to sue the AP over its coverage, saying the reporting had damaged Trump's business interests. No lawsuit was ever filed, and Trump never identified or alleged factual errors in AP's coverage.
The termination would mark a new setback for the Trump family's hotel business, which already lacked the scale of major international chains catering to business travellers. The family announced two new hotel brands after the presidential election -- Scion and American Idea -- and said it has already signed dozens of letters of intent with prospective licensees, but tangible progress in the form of permits and construction has been scarce.