Anbang Tries To Block Marriott With Starwood Offer
As part of its US hotel-buying spree, China’s Anbang Insurance Group made a $13B unsolicited offer for Starwood Hotels & Resorts—potentially blocking Marriott International’s bid for the hospitality company.
If completed, the deal would be China’s largest buyout of a US company. The offer comes just days after Anbang struck a deal to buy Strategic Hotels & Resorts from Blackstone for $6.5B, and less than two years after the company’s $2B trophy-buy of the historic Waldorf Astoria in NYC.
Anbang’s breakneck dealmaking comes alongside a string of foreign buyouts by Chinese companies, including the record-breaking $43B purchase of Syngenta, the Wall Street Journal reports. Chinese firms have already signed off on $102B in foreign deals for 2016, closing in on 2015’s $106B record.
Analysts say China’s sputtering economy is causing the spurt of deals as Chinese firms look abroad for higher yields and safe havens for their cash. [WSJ]
