LA Times: Chinese insurer acquiring Santa Monica resort, Hotel del Coronado in $6.5-billion deal

[proverbialwisdom]

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/5/article/p2p-86199247/

Chinese insurer acquiring Santa Monica resort, Hotel del Coronado in $6.5-billion deal
DON TORMEY / LOS ANGELES TIMES

The Hotel del Coronado in San Diego is being acquired by Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group.

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 12, 2016, 5:03 p.m.

The Loews Santa Monica Beach and the historic Hotel del Coronado near San Diego are being acquired by a Chinese insurance company as part of a $6.5-billion deal.

Blackstone Group, a New York private equity firm, has agreed to sell its Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc., which owns 16 luxury properties, to Anbang Insurance Group, a person familiar with the transaction said Saturday

The portfolio, according to Strategic's website, includes the Santa Monica hotel and the famed Coronado hotel, as well as two other Southern California properties -- the Montage Laguna Beach and the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel. There are three properties in the Bay Area: the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, the Four Seasons Hotel in East Palo Alto and the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.

Beijing-based Anbang has been investing in luxury U.S. hotel properties, including its acquisition last year of the Waldorf Astoria in New York for $1.95 billion from Hilton Worldwide Holdings.

Buying Strategic Hotels gives Anbang a host of high-end hotels and resorts in a single move. The portfolio's 16 properties include 7,532 rooms as well as meeting and banquet space. Among its other properties are the Fairmont Scottsdale in Arizona and the Four Seasons Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Blackstone only completed its acquisition of Strategic Hotels, a Chicago-based real estate investment trust, in December. That sale was valued at $3.93 billion, or about $6 billion, including debt.

<>

[NBachers]

1. In the pipeline: Yosemite Nat'l Park, Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, & the American side of Niagara Falls

Well, the Chinese can't do any more damage than Delaware North did to Yosemite when they demanded compensation for the traditional names behind Yosemite's facilities and locations.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-icymi-the-corporate-grab-behind-the-yosemite-trademark-clash-20160229-column.html

[proverbialwisdom]

2. Thanks for that link, did not know any of that. (nt)

[proverbialwisdom]

4. APPARENT BUYING BINGE CONTINUES: Anbang's $13.2 Billion Bid Accepted by Starwood Hotels

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-18/starwood-hotels-gets-binding-78-a-share-offer-from-anbang-group

Starwood Hotels Plans to Accept Anbang's $13.2 Billion Bid

by Hui-Yong Yu
March 18, 2016 — 5:56 AM PDT
Updated on March 18, 2016 — 1:22 PM PDT

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., owner of brands such as Westin, Sheraton and W, said it plans to accept a $13.2 billion takeover bid by China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co. and gave suitor Marriott International Inc. a deadline to make a counteroffer.

<>

A takeover by Anbang would extend a push into U.S hotels that started last year with its $1.95 billion purchase of Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria. The sweetened bid underscores the intense interest in hotels from Chinese investors, who are seeking to buy hard assets abroad and capture demand from a surge in Chinese travelers.

<>

Anbang is joining forces with private equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co. and Chinese investment firm Primavera Capital on the bid. Primavera was founded by Fred Hu, who previously ran China dealmaking for Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

<>

Anbang has also agreed to buy Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc., an owner of 16 luxury U.S. properties, from Blackstone for about $6.5 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. (See OP)

<>

Kinda breathtaking.

[proverbialwisdom]

5. LA Times: Chinese investments in U.S. hotel companies spur national security scrutiny

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-20160317-column.html

Chinese investments in U.S. hotel companies spur national security scrutiny
Source: by Michael Hiltzik, LA Times

March 18, 2016, 8:11 PM

Repost: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141383539

[Auggie]

6. Chinese investors have been buying tons of real estate in the Bay Area as well

[proverbialwisdom]

7. 1/13/17: What If China's Money Stream Stops Flowing to Hollywood?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/what-chinas-money-stream-stops-flowing-hollywood-963107

What If China's Money Stream Stops Flowing to Hollywood?

6:00 AM PST 1/13/2017
by Patrick Brzeski

[center]Beijing begins monitoring "irrational" investments in entertainment companies (even while Alibaba pledges $7.2 billion)
as one deal falls apart and all eyes focus on Trump.[/center]
Chinese companies poured record amounts of capital into Hollywood in 2016 — a trend eagerly embraced by the U.S. film industry. Among the deals: Dalian Wanda Group acquired Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion and Dick Clark Productions for $1 billion; Alibaba made a major investment in Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment; and Beijing-based Perfect World Pictures put $500 million into 50 films from Universal.

But tighter regulatory scrutiny and rising protectionism in the U.S. and China now have the industry questioning whether the deal flow could dry up in 2017. Already, there have been casualties.

Indie film player Voltage Entertainment, producer of The Hurt Locker and Dallas Buyers Club, surprised many in November when plans came to light for a provincial Chinese manufacturing firm to acquire the Los Angeles-based studio for $350 million. But within weeks, the firm, Anhui Xinke New Materials, revealed it was aborting the deal after failing to meet additional documentation requests from local regulators.

The agreement might have squeaked through if it had come a few months earlier. In early December, Beijing announced it was monitoring a pattern of "irrational" overseas investments in several sectors, particularly film, real estate and sports. In an effort to stem capital flight, which was seen as contributing to a devaluation of China's currency, regulators signaled that stricter oversight is on the way. According to a leaked draft of the new rules, Chinese officials said they would scrutinize offshore purchases of more than $1 billion if they were outside the investor's "core business" area. Insiders say deals well below that threshold already are being reviewed as well.

<>

[The River]

8. I'll Worry When

they start buying farmland.