Merger Interruptus: Chinese Consortium Outbids Marriott for Starwood
Le Meridien, New Orleans, a Starwood property
Apparently, a merger isn’t over until the fat hotel sings. A Chinese insurance company announced it would offer roughly $13 billion for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, possibly derailing Marriott International’s $10.8 billion cash-and-stock merger.
Anbang Insurance Group, which purchased the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan a little over two years ago for $1.95 billion, is leading a consortium of investors that hopes to prevail in the battle for Starwood. Shareholders of Marriott and Starwood are slated to consider the original deal later this month.
The unsolicited bid from the Chinese investor group also includes Primavera Capital and J.C. Flowers.
The news comes on the heels of news that Anbang had agreed to buy Strategic Hotels and Resorts from the Blackstone Group in a $6.5 billion deal months after Blackstone itself acquired the company.
Strategic Hotels owns 18 luxury properties, 17 in the United States and one in Germany, including the JW Marriott Essex House, Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, the InterContinental Chicago, and Four Seasons hotels in Austin, Texas and Washington, D.C.
Last summer, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates attempted to acquire control of Strategic Hotels.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
