Chinese insurer Anbang Insurance Group Co. and its partners again raised their all-cash bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts to $82.75 per share, or $14 billion. The offer tops Marriott's most recent cash-and-stock offer, worth $78.12, or $13.6 billion,
a
Financial Times
report said.
Marriott “first agreed to acquire Starwood for $12.2 billion back in November” and raised its bid to $13.6 billion on March 21 in response to Anbang's offer, the
FT
report noted.
Starwood “stressed that its board was still backing a merger with Marriott,” the
FT
article said. “Starwood is reluctant to accept Anbang's offer amid Chinese media reports that Anbang's U.S. deals are at risk of being blocked by local regulators.”
Hotel analysts
told the
Wall Street Journal
they doubted whether Marriott would again sweeten its bid. Marriott would receive a breakup fee of more than $400 million if Starwood accepts Anbang's offer, the
Journal
article said.
Marriott's March 21 counterbid “was an unusually aggressive move for a company that historically has been conservative with its balance sheet,” the
Journal
article said. Chairman Bill Marriott typically has had an aversion to taking on too much debt, and the lodging company in the past has favored acquiring single-brand firms rather than pursuing splashy takeovers of rivals such as Starwood, with its 11 brands.” (Sources:
Financial Times
, March 29, 2016;
Wall Street Journal
, March 29, 2016.)
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