Marriott strikes back: Starwood accepts new $13.6B bid

Anbang bid $13.2B last week, topping Marriott’s original $12.2B offer

Marriott's Arne Sorenson, Starwood's Thomas Mangas and Anbang's Wu Xiaohui
Marriott's Arne Sorenson, Starwood's Thomas Mangas and Anbang's Wu Xiaohui

The bidding war for Starwood Hotels & Resorts may finally have come to an end.

The hospitality giant accepted a new, juiced-up takeover offer from Marriott International, totaling about $13.6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Marriott’s is a counterbid; it follows news last week that Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group – which recently bought 16 hotels from the Blackstone Group, and owns the Waldorf Astoria hotel – had offered $13.2 billion, or $78 per square, a billion higher than the figure Marriott and Starwood agreed to in November, and about $370 million above its own bid earlier in the week.

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Under the new deal, Starwood’s shareholders will get $21 in cash and 0.8 shares of Marriott for every Starwood share they own, valued at Friday’s closing price of $79.53. After the merger, Starwood’s shareholders will own about a third of the combined entity, which will be the world’s largest hotel chain.

Anbang – a massive insurance firm international ambitions and ties to the Chinese state – paid $6.5 billion last month to the Blackstone Group for the 16-property Strategic Hotels & Resorts portfolio, which included the JW Marriott Essex House at 160 Central Park South. [WSJ]Ariel Stulberg