La Quinta shares rise after IPO raises $650m

Hotel chain La Quinta rose Wednesday in its first day of trade afterBlackstone Group successfully launched its third hotel stock offering sinceNovember into a hot IPO market.La Quinta Holdings shares rose 3.1 percent to $17.53 in early afternoon trade afterunderwriters Tuesday sold the IPO at $17 per share, valuing the hotel chain at $2.1billion.However, the offering came below the $18-21 range the company proposed in lateMarch.A mid-tier chain with corporate headquarters in Irving, Texas, La Quinta has 834hotels, of which 357 are owned and operated and 477 franchised. The company'shotels are in 46 US states, Canada and Mexico.La Quinta plans to use the funds to repay debt and for "general corporatepurposes."This La Quinta flotation follows earlier Blackstone offerings from Hilton Worldwideand Extended Stay and comes during a heavy week for new stock issues.Dealogic expects 14 IPOs in all this week, which would make it the busiest sinceNovember 2007.Underwriters sold 38.3 million shares of La Quinta and could sell up 5.7 millionadditional shares over the next 30 days. The shares trade on the New York StockExchange under the "LQ" ticker.La Quinta was last traded on public markets in 2006, when Blackstone acquired thechain in a deal valued at around $3.4 billion.The Hilton offering raised $2.7 billion in December and is the largest hotel IPO onrecord, according to Dealogic. The Extended Stay offering raised roughly $565million in November.