Morgan Stanley may hand creditors $2.4 billion hotels

Morgan Stanley may hand over to creditors its $2.4 billion investment in a chain of Japanese hotels when the debt becomes due in April, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.                                           

Morgan Stanley acquired the chain of 13 hotels from All Nippon Airways in 2007, in what was then the biggest hotel transaction in Asia. Since then, property prices worldwide have dropped sharply, hit by the global financial crisis.                                           

However, two of the main lenders in the purchase, Citigroup Inc and Shinsei Bank want Morgan Stanley to put more equity into the property, for more security against declining prices, the paper said.                                           
 

So far Morgan Stanley has been reluctant to do that, the paper said.                                           

Officials for Citigroup and Shinsei declined to comment. No one was available for comment at Morgan Stanley.                                           

Another lender, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, is interested in taking over the hotels from Morgan Stanley and is currently in discussions with the other lenders, the paper said, citing one person.                                           

An official for GIC declined to comment.