Anbang Insurance is seeking to sell its luxury hotel portfolio it bought in 2016, to raise cash following a takeover by the Chinese government.
The collection of 15 hotels is being priced at $5.5bn, reported The Wall Street Journal.
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The portfolio of hotels includes San Francisco’s Westin St. Francis hotel; Essex House Hotel in Manhattan; Four Seasons Hotel at Jackson Hole in Wyoming; InterContinental hotels in Chicago and Miami.
Earlier this year, there were rumours that private equity firm Blackstone was in negotiations to acquire several of the assets it divested to Anbang in 2016.
The Government of China took control of the insurance firm in February after a probe by the country’s insurance regulatory commission.
According to the regulatory body, the insurance firm had violated regulations, which raised concerns over its ability to pay insurance claims.
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By GlobalDataThe government took control of Anbang to stop it from a financial collapse.
Since the takeover, Anbang has secured $9.7bn in capital to stabilise its operations, and now the insurance firm has been ordered to divest its assets.
The recent years has seen the US luxury hotel market’s valuation drop. In 2015, the market had sales of $22bn, which dropped to $5.2bn in 2018. Only a few companies can afford to pay the price paid by Anbang. This restricts mostly sovereign-wealth funds and private equity firms to afford the price Anbang is seeking.
A possible sale of its luxury hotel properties in the US could help the insurance firm to ward off immediate collapse.
