Trial Date Set For $5.8B Sale Of 15 U.S. Luxury Hotels
A failed multibillion-dollar deal. Two foreign entities squabbling over the sale of more than a dozen prized high-end U.S. resorts. Multiple glitzy California hotel properties. One of the worst global pandemics in history.
The premise may sound like a Hollywood movie plot line. But it is real, ongoing and now headed to court.
Earlier this month, a Delaware judge sided with China-based Dajia Insurance Co., formerly Anbang Insurance Group, in its lawsuit against South Korea's Mirae Asset Global Investments Co.
Dajia claims that Mirae backed out of a $5.8B deal of 15 U.S. luxury resorts that was set to close in April, a month after the coronavirus severely impacted the businesses.
Mirae claimed that some of the property titles remain cloudy and that businesses in those resorts have not performed sufficiently since the two struck a deal in September.
Delaware Chancery Court Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster called for a three-day trial to begin on Aug. 24, 2020, Law360 reports.
The judge's court date comes as both sides continue to bicker over luxury hotels that include the Montage Laguna Beach; JW Marriott Essex House in New York; Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay; Westin St. Francis in San Francisco; and Four Seasons Silicon Valley.
In September, Dajia, which is now controlled by the Chinese government after it ousted and prosecuted its chairman in 2018, struck an agreement to sell the hotel portfolio to Mirae. But there were also reports that property deeds in at least four hotels in California were faked, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Mirae's request to delay the court date to next year was denied, according to Law360.
