High-level lateral hires at Sidley Austin’s office in Century City, which opened in May 2015, have continued into the new year. The latest addition is real estate partner Peter Benudiz, who previously practiced law at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy. Benudiz advises clients on mergers, acquisitions, and financings in the hospitality and real estate sectors. Many of his deals are cross-border and have a marked private equity component.
“The reality is that for hospitality practices, it matters less where a lawyer or an investment banker or an advisor sits because the industry is truly global, almost by definition. My practice has always been national and international, and that was true at my prior firm, but there is also an advantage being in L.A. given that there are a number of private equity funds and hedge funds, as well as other investors in the hospitality industry that are resident in Century City as opposed to other places throughout Southern California,” Benudiz said.
Benudiz joins Sidley at a juncture marked by steady growth in the hotel sector in Southern California and beyond.
“If you look back at year-on-year growth in the hospitality sector, specifically the hotel sector, you’ll see compound growth of 4+% ADR. So hotels are valued not like traditional real estate, they’re valued as operating businesses. As ADR, EBITDA/NOI increase, so does the value, because there’s a multiple attached to the NOI/EBITDA number,” Benudiz observed.
Benudiz holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.