Anbang sells luxury hotels to South Korea's Mirae for US$5.8 billion, ending Chinese asset buyer’s foray into hospitality

Anbang Insurance Group agreed to sell a luxury hotel portfolio for a little more than US$5.8 billion to South Korea’s Mirae Asset Management

The properties include the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, the JW Marriott Essex House in New York and the Four Seasons in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

1-MIN READ1-MIN

Women walk by the Anbang Insurance Group office building in Beijing, on Wednesday, April 4, 2018. Photo: AP

Published: 11:00am, 11 Sep 2019Updated: 11:00am, 11 Sep 2019

Anbang Insurance Group agreed to sell a luxury hotel portfolio for a little more than US$5.8 billion to South Korea’s Mirae Asset Management, marking the end of the Chinese insurer’s short-lived investment in the properties.

Mirae posted a 10 per cent deposit on the portfolio this week, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the details are private. The parties were nearing a sale last month, as Bloomberg News reported at the time. Irregularities in the deeds to some of the properties delayed the sale, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Anbang bought the properties’ owner, Strategic Hotels & Resorts, from Blackstone Group for about US$5.5 billion in 2016. The deal was part of a global buying spree that made Anbang emblematic of China’s unbridled appetite for international trophy assets. That era ended when Chinese authorities seized control of Anbang and later sentenced Chairman Wu Xiaohui to 18 years in prison.

The properties include the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, the JW Marriott Essex House in New York and the Four Seasons in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Separately, Anbang still owns the famed Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan from a US$1.95 billion deal in 2015.