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Mr. Giglia continued, "During 2024, we successfully executed our strategy of recycling capital, investing in our portfolio, and returning capital to shareholders. We redeployed capital, acquiring the Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk at a compelling current yield with attractive future growth opportunities. Building on our success with the conversion of The Westin Washington, DC Downtown, we are now positioned to generate further growth from other recent investments in our portfolio. As we look ahead, our earnings in 2025 are expected to benefit from the recently completed conversion of the Marriott Long Beach Downtown and the debut of Andaz Miami Beach in the first quarter. Our strong liquidity position and embedded earnings growth provide for a well-covered dividend and the ability to repurchase our common stock at a discount to NAV, which is evidenced by our return of nearly $100 million to shareholders during the year. We believe that our active capital recycling, investment in our portfolio to drive future growth, and meaningful return of capital will position Sunstone for further success in 2025."

The Company's actual results for 2024 compare to its guidance previously provided as follows:

2024 Highlights

Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk. In April 2024, the Company completed the acquisition of the 630-room Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk. The exceptionally well-located hotel is situated directly between San Antonio's famous Riverwalk and the Alamo, two of the most visited tourist sites in Texas. The hotel outperformed the Company's expectations in 2024 and generated an attractive 10.1x multiple on the net purchase price, inclusive of key money incentives offered by the hotel's manager. The Company believes there are opportunities to continue to grow earnings at the hotel from the completion of the adjacent Alamo Visitor Center and Museum and from various asset management and investment initiatives.  

Marriott Long Beach Downtown. In 2024, the Company completed its renovation and rebranding of the Renaissance Long Beach and the hotel debuted as Marriott Long Beach Downtown. The fully renovated hotel boasts a reimagined lobby, redesigned guestrooms, new food and beverage offerings, and reinvigorated meeting space. The repositioned hotel is attracting higher-quality business and higher rates and should contribute meaningfully to the Company's earnings in 2025.

Andaz Miami Beach. In 2024, the Company made substantial progress on its conversion of The Confidante Miami Beach to Andaz Miami Beach. The transformative renovation encompasses all aspects of the resort and will meaningfully enhance the earnings potential of the asset. Andaz Miami Beach is expected to debut in the first quarter of 2025 and drive earnings growth in 2025 and beyond.

New Unsecured Term Loan and JW Marriott New Orleans Mortgage Repayment. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the Company entered into a new $100.0 million term loan agreement and used substantially all of the proceeds to repay the $72.1 million loan secured by the JW Marriott New Orleans. Following the repayment of the JW Marriott New Orleans loan, all of the Company's hotels are unencumbered and, inclusive of extension options, the Company has no debt maturities prior to 2026.

Stock Repurchase Program. During 2024, the Company repurchased 2,764,837 shares of its common stock at an average purchase price of $9.83 per share for a total repurchase amount before expenses of $27.2 million. The average purchase price per share represents a substantial discount to consensus estimates of net asset value and implies a highly attractive valuation multiple on the Company's stabilized cash flow. The Company currently has $427.5 million remaining under its existing stock repurchase program authorization.

Balance Sheet and Liquidity Update

As of December 31, 2024, the Company had $180.3 million of cash and cash equivalents, including restricted cash of $73.1 million, total assets of $3.1 billion, including $2.9 billion of net investments in hotel properties, total debt of $845.0 million and stockholders' equity of $2.1 billion.

Capital Investments Update

The Company invested $47.1 million and $157.4 million into its portfolio during the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2024, respectively. The majority of the 2024 investment consisted of the conversions of Andaz Miami Beach and the Marriott Long Beach Downtown and a soft goods renovation at Wailea Beach Resort.

The Company currently expects to invest approximately $80 million to $100 million into its portfolio in 2025, with the majority of the investment relating to the completion of the Andaz Miami Beach transformation, the remaining investment for the room renovation at Wailea Beach Resort, and a renovation of the meeting space at Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk.

2025 Outlook

For the full year 2025, the Company expects:

 

Full year 2025 guidance is based in part on the following full year assumptions:

• Full year interest income of approximately $4 million to $5 million.

• Full year corporate overhead expense (excluding deferred stock amortization) of approximately $22 million to $23 million, which includes $1.8 million of cost incurred in the first quarter in connection with a previously announced management transition. The management transition cost will not be included in the Company's calculation of Adjusted EBITDAre and Adjusted FFO Attributable to Common Stockholders.

• Full year interest expense of approximately $50 million to $53 million, including approximately $4 million in amortization of deferred financing costs.

• Full year preferred stock dividends of approximately $16 million to $17 million, which includes the Series G, H, and I cumulative redeemable preferred stock.

Recent Developments

Corporate Responsibility Report. In February 2025, the Company published its 2024 Corporate Responsibility Report. The report includes details on Sunstone's environmental sustainability, social responsibility and corporate governance ("ESG") progress during 2023, as well details of the Company's newly established 2035 environmental targets and certain additional ESG initiatives commenced in 2024. A copy of the report can be found on the Corporate Responsibility page of the Company's website at www.sunstonehotels.com.

Dividend Update

On February 20, 2025, the Company's Board of Directors authorized a cash dividend of $0.09 per share of its common stock. The Company's Board of Directors also authorized cash dividends of $0.382813 per share payable to its Series H cumulative redeemable preferred stockholders and $0.356250 per share payable to its Series I cumulative redeemable preferred stockholders. The common and preferred dividends will be paid on April 15, 2025 to stockholders of record as of March 31, 2025.

The Company currently expects to continue to pay a quarterly cash common dividend throughout 2025. The level of any future quarterly dividends will be determined by the Company's Board of Directors after considering long-term operating projections, expected capital requirements, and risks affecting the Company's business.

Supplemental Disclosures

Contemporaneous with this release, the Company has furnished a Form 8-K with unaudited financial information. This additional information is being provided as a supplement to the information in this release and other filings with the SEC. The Company has no obligation to update any of the information provided to conform to actual results or changes in the Company's portfolio, capital structure or future expectations.

Earnings Call

The Company will host a conference call to discuss fourth quarter and full year 2024 results on February 21, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (10:00 a.m. Pacific Time). A live webcast of the call will be available via the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.sunstonehotels.com. Alternatively, interested parties may dial 1-800-715-9871 and reference conference ID 1026321 to listen to the live call. A replay of the webcast will also be archived on the website.

About Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc.

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. is a lodging real estate investment trust ("REIT") that as of the date of this release owns 15 hotels comprised of 7,253 rooms, the majority of which are operated under nationally recognized brands. Sunstone's strategy is to create long-term stakeholder value through the acquisition, active ownership, and disposition of well-located hotel and resort real estate. For further information, please visit Sunstone's website at www.sunstonehotels.com. The Company's website is provided as a reference only and any information on the website is not incorporated by reference in this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws and regulations. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "predict," "project," "should," "will" and other similar terms and phrases, including opinions, references to assumptions and forecasts of future results. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated at the time the forward-looking statements are made. These risks include, but are not limited to: we own upper upscale and luxury hotels located in urban and resort destinations in an industry that is highly competitive; events beyond our control, including economic slowdowns or recessions, pandemics, natural disasters, civil unrest and terrorism; inflation may adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations; system security risks, data protection breaches, cyber-attacks and systems integration issues, including those impacting the Company's suppliers, hotel managers or franchisors; a significant portion of our hotels are geographically concentrated so we may be disproportionately harmed by economic conditions, competition, new hotel supply, real and personal property tax rates or natural disasters in these areas of the country; we face possible risks associated with the physical and transitional effects of climate change; uninsured or underinsured losses could harm our financial condition; the operating results of some of our hotels are significantly reliant upon group and transient business generated by large corporate customers, and the loss of such customers for any reason could harm our operating results; the increased use of virtual meetings and other similar technologies could lessen the need for business-related travel, and, therefore, demand for rooms in our hotels may be adversely affected; our hotels require ongoing capital investment and we may incur significant capital expenditures in connection with acquisitions, repositionings and other improvements, some of which are mandated by applicable laws or regulations or agreements with third parties, and the costs of such renovations, repositionings or improvements may exceed our expectations or cause other problems; delays in the acquisition, renovation or repositioning of hotel properties may have adverse effects on our results of operations and returns to our stockholders; accounting for the acquisition of a hotel property or other entity involves assumptions and estimations to determine fair value that could differ materially from the actual results achieved in future periods; volatility in the debt and equity markets may adversely affect our ability to acquire, renovate, refinance or sell our hotels; we may pursue joint venture investments that could be adversely affected by our lack of sole decision-making authority, our reliance on a co-venturer's financial condition and disputes between us and our co-venturer; we may be subject to unknown or contingent liabilities related to recently sold or acquired hotels, as well as hotels we may sell or acquire in the future; we may seek to acquire a portfolio of hotels or a company, which could present more risks to our business and financial results than the acquisition of a single hotel; the sale of a hotel or portfolio of hotels is typically subject to contingencies, risks and uncertainties, any of which may cause us to be unsuccessful in completing the disposition; the illiquidity of real estate investments and the lack of alternative uses of hotel properties could significantly limit our ability to respond to adverse changes in the performance of our hotels; we may issue or invest in hotel loans, including subordinated or mezzanine loans, which could involve greater risks of loss than senior loans secured by income-producing real properties; if we make or invest in mortgage loans with the intent of gaining ownership of the hotel secured by or pledged to the loan, our ability to perfect an ownership interest in the hotel is subject to the sponsor's willingness to forfeit the property in lieu of the debt; one of our hotels is subject to a ground lease with an unaffiliated party, the termination of which by the lessor for any reason, including due to our default on the lease, could cause us to lose the ability to operate the hotel altogether and may adversely affect our results of operations; because we are a REIT, we depend on third-parties to operate our hotels; we are subject to risks associated with our operators' employment of hotel personnel; most of our hotels operate under a brand owned by Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Four Seasons or Montage, and should any of these brands experience a negative event, or receive negative publicity, our operating results may be harmed; our franchisors and brand managers may adopt new policies or change existing policies which could result in increased costs that could negatively impact our hotels; future adverse litigation judgments or settlements resulting from legal proceedings could have an adverse effect on our financial condition; claims by persons regarding our properties could affect the attractiveness of our hotels or cause us to incur additional expenses; the hotel business is seasonal and seasonal variations in business volume at our hotels will cause quarterly fluctuations in our revenue and operating results; changes in the debt and equity markets may adversely affect the value of our hotels; certain of our hotels have in the past become impaired and additional hotels may become impaired in the future; laws and governmental regulations may restrict the ways in which we use our hotel properties and increase the cost of compliance with such regulations, and noncompliance with such regulations could subject us to penalties, loss of value of our properties or civil damages; corporate responsibility, specifically related to environmental sustainability, social responsibility and corporate governance, or ESG, factors and commitments, may impose additional costs and expose us to new risks that could adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows; our franchisors and brand managers may require us to make capital expenditures pursuant to property improvement plans or to comply with brand standards; termination of any of our franchise, management or operating lease agreements could cause us to lose business; the growth of alternative reservation channels could adversely affect our business and profitability; the failure of tenants in our hotels to make rent payments or otherwise comply with the material terms of our retail and restaurant leases may adversely affect our results of operations; we rely on our corporate and hotel senior management teams, the loss of whom may cause us to incur costs and harm our business; we could be harmed by inadvertent errors, misconduct or fraud that is difficult to detect; if we fail to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or identify and prevent fraud; we have outstanding debt which may restrict our financial flexibility; our debt agreements contain various covenants, restrictions, requirements and other limitations, and should we default, we may be required to pay additional fees, provide additional security or repay the debt; defaulting on existing debt may limit our ability to access additional debt financing in the future; certain of our unsecured term loans are subject to variable interest rates, which creates uncertainty in the amount of interest expense we will incur in the future and may negatively impact our operating results; we may not be able to refinance our debt on favorable terms or at all; our stock repurchase program may not enhance long-term stockholder value, could cause volatility in the price of our common and preferred stock and could diminish our cash reserves; and other risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business described in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that the expectations will be attained or that any deviation will not be material. All forward-looking information provided herein is as of the date of this release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the Company's expectations.

This release should be read together with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Copies of these reports are available on our website at www.sunstonehotels.com and through the SEC's Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval System ("EDGAR") at www.sec.gov.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We present the following non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are useful to investors as key supplemental measures of our operating performance: earnings before interest expense, taxes, depreciation and amortization for real estate, or EBITDAre; Adjusted EBITDAre (as defined below); funds from operations attributable to common stockholders, or FFO attributable to common stockholders; Adjusted FFO attributable to common stockholders (as defined below); hotel Adjusted EBITDAre; and hotel Adjusted EBITDAre margins. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance in accordance with GAAP. In addition, our calculation of these measures may not be comparable to other companies that do not define such terms exactly the same as the Company. These non-GAAP measures are used in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with GAAP. They should not be considered as alternatives to net income (loss), cash flow from operations, or any other operating performance measure prescribed by GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures reflect additional ways of viewing our operations that we believe, when viewed with our GAAP results and the reconciliations to the corresponding GAAP financial measures, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our business than could be obtained absent this disclosure. We strongly encourage investors to review our financial information in its entirety and not to rely on a single financial measure.

We present EBITDAre in accordance with guidelines established by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts ("Nareit"), as defined in its September 2017 white paper "Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization for Real Estate." We believe EBITDAre is a useful performance measure to help investors evaluate and compare the results of our operations from period to period in comparison to our peers. Nareit defines EBITDAre as net income (calculated in accordance with GAAP) plus interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, gains or losses on the disposition of depreciated property (including gains or losses on change in control), impairment write-downs of depreciated property and of investments in unconsolidated affiliates caused by a decrease in the value of depreciated property in the affiliate, and adjustments to reflect the entity's share of EBITDAre of unconsolidated affiliates.

We make additional adjustments to EBITDAre when evaluating our performance because we believe that the exclusion of certain additional items described below provides useful information to investors regarding our operating performance, and that the presentation of Adjusted EBITDAre, when combined with the primary GAAP presentation of net income, is beneficial to an investor's complete understanding of our operating performance. In addition, we use both EBITDAre and Adjusted EBITDAre as measures in determining the value of hotel acquisitions and dispositions.

We believe that the presentation of FFO attributable to common stockholders provides useful information to investors regarding our operating performance because it is a measure of our operations without regard to specified noncash items such as real estate depreciation and amortization, any real estate impairment loss and any gain or loss on sale of real estate assets, all of which are based on historical cost accounting and may be of lesser significance in evaluating our current performance. Our presentation of FFO attributable to common stockholders conforms to Nareit's definition of "FFO applicable to common shares." Our presentation may not be comparable to FFO reported by other REITs that do not define the terms in accordance with the current Nareit definition, or that interpret the current Nareit definition differently than we do.

We also present Adjusted FFO attributable to common stockholders when evaluating our operating performance because we believe that the exclusion of certain additional items described below provides useful supplemental information to investors regarding our ongoing operating performance and may facilitate comparisons of operating performance between periods and our peer companies.

We adjust EBITDAre and FFO attributable to common stockholders for the following items, which may occur in any period, and refer to these measures as either Adjusted EBITDAre or Adjusted FFO attributable to common stockholders:

• Amortization of deferred stock compensation: we exclude the noncash expense incurred with the amortization of deferred stock compensation as this expense is based on historical stock prices at the date of grant to our corporate employees and does not reflect the underlying performance of our hotels.

• Amortization of contract intangibles: we exclude the noncash amortization of any favorable or unfavorable contract intangibles recorded in conjunction with our hotel acquisitions. We exclude the noncash amortization of contract intangibles because it is based on historical cost accounting and is of lesser significance in evaluating our actual performance for the current period.

• Gains or losses from debt transactions: we exclude the effect of finance charges and premiums associated with the extinguishment of debt, including the acceleration of deferred financing costs from the original issuance of the debt being redeemed or retired because, like interest expense, their removal helps investors evaluate and compare the results of our operations from period to period by removing the impact of our capital structure.

• Cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle: from time to time, the FASB promulgates new accounting standards that require the consolidated statement of operations to reflect the cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle. We exclude these one-time adjustments, which include the accounting impact from prior periods, because they do not reflect our actual performance for that period.

• Other adjustments: we exclude other adjustments that we believe are outside the ordinary course of business because we do not believe these costs reflect our actual performance for the period and/or the ongoing operations of our hotels. Such items may include: lawsuit settlement costs; the write-off of development costs associated with abandoned projects; property-level restructuring, severance, and management transition costs; pre-opening costs associated with extensive renovation projects such as the work being performed at The Confidante Miami Beach; debt resolution costs; lease terminations; property insurance restoration proceeds or uninsured losses; and other nonrecurring identified adjustments.

In addition, to derive Adjusted EBITDAre, we exclude the amortization of our right-of-use assets and related lease obligations as these expenses are based on historical cost accounting and do not reflect the actual rent amounts due to the respective lessors or the underlying performance of our hotels. We also exclude the effect of gains and losses on the disposition of undepreciated assets because we believe that including them in Adjusted EBITDAre is not consistent with reflecting the ongoing performance of our assets.

To derive Adjusted FFO attributable to common stockholders, we also exclude the noncash interest on our derivatives as we believe that these items are not reflective of our ongoing finance costs. Additionally, we exclude the real estate amortization of our right-of-use assets and related lease obligations (with the exception of our corporate operating lease) as these expenses are based on historical cost accounting and do not reflect the actual rent amounts due to the respective lessors or the underlying performance of our hotels. We also exclude preferred stock redemption charges, changes to deferred tax assets, liabilities or valuation allowances, and income tax benefits or provisions associated with the application of net operating loss carryforwards, uncertain tax positions or with the sale of assets.

In presenting hotel Adjusted EBITDAre and hotel Adjusted EBITDAre margins, miscellaneous non-hotel items have been excluded. We believe the calculation of hotel Adjusted EBITDAre results in a more accurate presentation of the hotel Adjusted EBITDAre margins for our hotels, and that these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors in evaluating our property-level operating performance.

Reconciliations of net income to EBITDAre, Adjusted EBITDAre, FFO attributable to common stockholders, Adjusted FFO attributable to common stockholders, hotel Adjusted EBITDAre and hotel Adjusted EBITDAre margins are set forth in the following pages of this release.

For Additional Information:
Aaron Reyes
Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc.
(949) 382-3018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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SOURCE Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc.