InterContinental Miami among U.S. hotels that Chinese regulators may sell

China's insurance regulatory agency took ownership of the InterContinental and other U,S. hotels when it seized a Beijing-based insurer

The InterContinental Miami hotel (Credit: Agoda)
The InterContinental Miami hotel (Credit: Agoda)

The insurance regulatory agency in China is considering offers to buy luxury U.S. hotels it has seized, including the InterContinental Miami hotel in downtown Miami.

The agency has seized Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group Co. and has taken ownership of more than a dozen U.S. hotels that Anbang acquired.

In 2016, Anbang paid $6.5 billion to buy a portfolio of 16 high-end hotels from New York-based investment firm Blackstone Group L.P. less than a year after Blackstone bought the hotels, including the InterContinental Miami, for $6 billion.

China’s insurance regulatory agency also is considering offers to buy such hotels as the InterContintental in Chicago, Essex House in Manhattan, and Four Seasons hotels in Austin, Texas, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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The Chinese government may sell the hotels for less than Anbang paid due to slow revenue growth in the U.S. hotel industry.

The growth rate for revenue per available hotel room in the United States peaked at 8.2 percent in 2014 and has decelerated each year since then, rising just 3 percent last year, according to hotel industry research firm STR, which has forecast 2.7 percent growth this year.

Prosecutors in Shanghai said Friday they indicted the former chairman of Anbang, Wu Xiaohui, on charges of abusing his power and committing fraud in fundraising activities. [Wall Street Journal] – Mike Seemuth