DALLAS-Less than three days after announcing a spin-off of Ashford Hospitality Prime, Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc. has commenced a follow-on public offering of 11 million shares of common stock. The proceeds of the stock offering will help pay for the just-created Ashford Hospitality Prime, as well as for what the REIT dubs "other general corporate purposes."

A press release issued from Ashford Hospitality Trust indicates that the REIT will grand underwriters a 30-day option to acquire up to an additional 1.65 million shares of common stock. The release also notes that, due to the way in which the spin-off is structured, the common stock dividend for the new share issue will be paid at the quarter ending June 30.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities and Morgan Stanley are acting as the joint book-running managers for the offering. KeyBanc Capital Markets, Credit Agricole CIB and Credit Suisse are acting as senior co-managers.