By Mike Boyer
Enquirer staff writer
Shares of Eagle Hospitality Properties, a new real-estate investment trust acquiring the hotel properties of Covington's Corporex Companies, closed Friday at $10.25, up 50 cents in first-day trading.
Eagle plans to acquire nine hotels owned by Corporex, the private real-estate development company started in 1965 by Northern Kentucky entrepreneur Bill Butler.
Corporex's hotels include Covington's Marriott and Embassy Suites. Its other hotels are in Florence; Rochester, N.Y.; Burr Ridge, Ill.; Dublin, Ohio; Independence, Ohio; Denver, and Tampa.
Butler, who owns about 19 percent of Eagle, is chairman of the new company.
Eagle made its initial public offering of 14.6 million shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol EHP.
Eagle raised more than $130 million in the offering by underwriters A.G. Edwards and Wachovia Securities.
The initial offering of $9.75 a share, was in the lower rung of an anticipated $9 to $11 range.
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E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com
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