A business group led by a Beijing insurance firm significantly raised on Monday its multibillion-dollar bid to buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts, one of the largest hotel companies in the United States, providing the latest example of Chinese interest in prime American real estate.
Anbang Insurance Group offered $14 billion in cash for Starwood, roughly $400 million more than a competing proposal from Marriott International, the chain based in Bethesda, Maryland. Starwood owns and operates about 1,200 properties across the world, including brands such as St. Regis, Westin, Sheraton and W Hotels.
If successful, Anbang’s purchase of Starwood would mark the largest purchase of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm. And it is among a flurry of deals being pursued by cash-flush Chinese companies that have been facing economic turmoil at home and are now hunting for safer investments overseas.
The United States — and its real estate — have been of particular interest to Chinese firms, a trend that has not gone without notice on the presidential campaign trail.
Marriott, which is considering whether to counter the latest offer, has sought to woo Starwood shareholders by highlighting its expertise in running hotels and managing a large loyalty rewards programs. Unlike Anbang’s cash offer, it’s $13.6 billion stock-and-cash offer would give Starwood shareholders an ownership stake in what would be the world’s largest hotel operator. And Marriott warned the Chinese-led deal may have trouble passing muster with regulators.
“Starwood stockholders should give serious consideration to the question of whether the Anbang-led consortium will be able to close the proposed transaction, with a particular focus on the certainty of the consortium’s financing and the timing of any required regulatory approvals,” Marriott said in a statement Monday.