Canada’s largest hotel owner has secured a private-equity backstop as it navigates the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic. Slate Asset Management announced Tuesday that it has inked a deal to provide InnVest Hotels LP with a $75 million revolving credit facility, in a bid to ensure it has sufficient liquidity as the travel and accommodation industry grapples with weakened demand and more potential lockdowns.

In a release, InnVest Chief Financial Officer George Kosziwka lauded the agreement – along with the company’s efforts to strike deals with its mortgage lenders – as key measures to support the firm as it faces challenges from COVID-19.  

"We are pleased to complete our financing agreement with Slate, which along with cash on hand, the support from a number of our mortgage lenders and participation in government programs, provides us with the needed liquidity to see InnVest through the COVID-19 pandemic," Kosziwka said. "This credit facility provides us with incremental liquidity to continue operations and various renovation activities in this challenging economic environment.”

Airlines and hotels will benefit from potential for COVID-19 vaccine: Prudential Financial's Krosby

Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, gives her outlook for how markets are shaping up on the first day of the trading week. She says that airlines, hotels and cruise line stocks will benefit from vaccine hopes.

The deal is part of Slate’s special situation strategy, which the firm designed to provide transitional liquidity to the Canadian real estate industry, in particular companies hard-hit by the pandemic. Slate has about $6.5 billion in assets under management.

InnVest, which was taken private in 2016 by Hong Kong capital-backed Bluesky Hotels and Resorts Inc. for $2.1 billion including debt, has about 85 hotels in its portfolio. Those properties include hotels operating under the Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn and Hilton banners. InnVest also owns the former Trump Tower in downtown Toronto, since rebranded as the St. Regis Hotel, and a 20 per cent stake in Toronto’s historic Fairmont Royal York hotel.

In March, the company was forced to close an unspecified number of hotels and enacted temporary layoffs due to the impact of health guidelines and travel restrictions in some of Canada’s largest cities.