Ultimate Escapes Begins Trading On OTC Bulletin Board

By: Destination Club News
Date: February 19, 2010

Ultimate Escapes has begun trading on the OTC Bulletin Board this morning with the ticker symbols ULEI for its common shares and ULEI-W for its warrants. According to the club's press release, "The OTCBB is a regulated quotation service operated by FINRA that displays real-time quotes, last-sale prices, and volume information in OTC equity securities. It is a quotation medium for subscribing members, not an issuer listing service. An OTC equity security generally is any equity that is not listed or traded on a national securities exchange. OTCBB securities include national, regional, and foreign equity issues, warrants, units, ADRs, and Direct Participation Programs."

The world's second largest destination club in terms of total members, Ultimate Escapes is the world's first publicly-traded destination club. Earlier this month, Ultimate Escapes expected to remain listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but instead the club elected to postpone their secondary public offering and was suspended from the NYSE.

"We are disappointed that we are unable to complete the offering at this time," said President and CEO Jim Tousignant. "Unfortunately, the difficult market conditions over the last several weeks have led to a number of IPO's and secondary offerings being downsized or postponed. We expect to pursue our secondary offering during 2010 when market conditions are more favorable."

Prior to Secure America Acquisition Corporation (SAAC) and Ultimate Escapes signing their definitive agreement last year, SAAC conducted a thorough due diligence evaluation of the combination with the Board of Directors commenting on the potential positives and negatives of the acquisition. As mentioned by Tousignant, one of the identified negatives was the current economic conditions.

"In its evaluation of Ultimate Escapes, SAAC’s board of directors considered the current adverse economic conditions and the impact such conditions could have on Ultimate Escapes’ business. It was the board’s belief that the trends evidenced that Ultimate Escapes’ strategy since its inception demonstrated potential resistance or reduced exposure to recessionary economic forces and that Ultimate Escapes’ markets, investment strategy and growth strategy outweighed concerns about general economic conditions."

Sales have begun to pick up across the destination club industry in recent months. Exclusive Resorts concluded 2009 with their best month of the year in December. The Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club has continued to see interest in their reduced pricing and trial membership options and Equity Estates will soon disclose a press release about the success that their club had in 2009, with some "very compelling numbers" according to our source.

If you are considering destination club membership, request a free copy of our Destination Club Guide for more information about how clubs function, suggested due diligence points, and the benefits and risks of membership.