Chinese insurer Anbang ups bid to $15B for Starwood
STAR-ADVERTISER / NOV. 2015
The Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort and, to its left, the Sheraton Waikiki. Both hotels are part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.. China’s Anbang and its partners today pushed it’s bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. past the $15 billion mark.
NEW YORK » The price for Starwood Hotels continues to rocket higher, with the latest bid from China’s Anbang and its partners crossing the $15 billion mark.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., whose properties include the St. Regis New York, said today that the offer from the Anbang group is “reasonably likely” to be superior than the one made just last week by Marriott International.
The blitz by the Chinese insurer into the U.S. real estate market has repeatedly knocked askew the ambitions of Marriott, which has been attempting to add Starwood’s posh stable of hotels to its portfolio since last year.
Marriott bid $12.2 billion for the Greenwich, Connecticut, hotel in November and most had expected that Marriott would become the biggest hotel in the world when it completed the deal.
But few had realized the ambition, or motivation, of Anbang, even though it had made a big splash in the U.S. real estate market just two years ago when it acquired the famed Waldorf Astoria of York for almost $2 billion.
That became a bit clearer earlier this month, even before it challenged Marriott for control of Starwood, when it laid down $6.5 billion to acquire Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc., which owns several high-end properties including the JW Marriott Essex House in New York.
Industry analysts say this may be a fight Marriott can’t win, or shouldn’t, because Anbang is being driven by the desire to get its money out of China and into U.S. assets.
The newest offer is from Anbang is for $88.66 per Starwood share, or $15.03 billion. That tops the latest bid of $14.41 billion that Marriott International Inc. offered last week.
Anbang’s offer includes $82.75 per share in cash, which is an increase of $4.75 per share from its previous bid. The bid also includes $5.91 in stock for a spinoff of a vacation business.
Whoever gains control of Starwood will likely be entering Cuba, as well.
Starwood this month became the first U.S. hotel operator to gain access to Cuba during the first visit by a sitting U.S. president in almost 90 years.
Starwood said today that its board has not changed its recommendation in support of a deal with Marriott.
9 responses to “Chinese insurer Anbang ups bid to $15B for Starwood”
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Readers should connect this story to the accompanying story about the Israeli con man who takes advantage of the corrupt Chinese banking system to bilk companies of billions of dollars.
AND, “The “Hits” just keep coming”! I’ve gotta YEN for your Boychik-bye…
What does “YEN” have to do with the Chinese ?
Perhaps you believe China’s currency is the “Yen” ?
Don’t sell to the Chinese. They own enough already!
What ever you buy at Wal-Mart, the money goes straight to China.
another Chinese group is buying up USA hotels….google “green tree inns”…..they are taking over the Holiday Inn Express in Florence AZ. very soon.
After decades of Japanese domination of the economy and politics out here, we now begin the transition to Korean and Chinese domination.
It’s the principle of the “Golden Rule”:
He who has the gold… makes the rules.
Starwood and any other US commercial businesses should seriously consider the impact of selling to international economic powers just to make the almighty buck. What may be good for the investors and the top executives may not be good for the US working sector as a whole. The Chinese, Koreans and Japanese corporations have differing business ethics. US businesses should choose wisely.
Why doesn’t Anbang just corner the market on local chinese restaurants and take out?