Morgan Stanley to lose hotels
Morgan Stanley may have to hand over to creditors its $2.4bn (£1.5bn) investment in a Japanese hotel chain when the debt becomes due in April, according to sources. 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. Two of the main lenders in the purchase, Citigroup and Shinsei Bank, are understood to want Morgan Stanley to put more equity into the property as a buffer against declining prices. Japan had $23.8bn of distressed assets in the fourth quarter of 2009.