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The fight for Starwood Hotels swung back in favor of China’s Anbang after the insurance company offered $15 billion in a counterpunch to Marriott International.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., which has a tony stable of hotels including the St. Regis New York, said Monday that the offer from the Anbang group is “reasonably likely” to trump a sweetened bid that Marriott submitted last week.
Some industry analysts now believe Marriott will wind up on the losing end of this battle, unless other factors besides price enter the equation.
“We don’t think [Marriott] can go higher, and we would question it if they did,” Canaccord analyst Ryan Meliker wrote in a research note.
Starwood’s board said it is still backing Marriot’s bid while it assesses Anbang’s offer.
Marriott stood behind its last bid “as the best course” for Starwood in a Monday letter. The Bethesda, Md., company also advised Starwood shareholders to scrutinize Anbang’s financing and consider the “timing of any required regulatory approvals.”
That comment appeared to be a veiled reference to the potential hurdles that a Chinese company might have to clear to buy Starwood, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut. Marriot declined to elaborate on its letter.
Anbang dealt with similar concerns two years ago when it acquired the famed Waldorf Astoria for nearly $2 billion. While it tries to hook Starwood, Anbang is also trying to reel in Strategic Hotels & Resorts in a proposed $6.5 billion deal.
Although Anbang’s purchase of Waldorf was cleared by the U.S. Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment, worries about the Waldorf becoming an outpost for Chinese espionage still hang over the hotel. Last year, U.S. President Barack Obama, his top aides and staff along with the sizable U.S. diplomatic contingent lodged elsewhere during the annual U.N. General Assembly, which takes place every September.
(AP)
