South Korean firm to buy Anbang’s luxury US hotels
China based firm Anbang Insurance Group Co has agreed a deal to sell off its portfolio of luxury US hotels.
South Korea’s Mirae Asset Global Investments will take ownership of the 15 hotels for more than $5.8 billion.
However the deal has not been without a major hiccup.
According to the Wall St Journal, Anbang uncovered fake deeds had been created to transfer ownership of some of the hotels.
The fraudulent deed transactions were discovered when Anbang did a routine title search.
The Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, the Loews Santa Monica and the Four Seasons Silicon Valley in East Palo Alto were among hotels that were secretly transferred to limited liability companies.
These were done without Anbang’s knowledge, according to people familiar with the matter.
Such illegal deed transfers by forging signatures or other means, are not uncommon although it happens less frequently with large commercial real estate.
The WSJ reports there have been 20 convictions relating to this in New York City since 2014.
Last year a Manhattan Supreme Court grand jury cited an ‘epidemic’ of fake property transfers.
The sale to Mirae does not include the landmark Waldorf Astoria which Ambang bought for $1.95 billion in 2015.
It was the most expensive price paid for a US hotel.
At that time Anbang was on a shopping spree, snapping up overpriced trophy assets but its frivolous spending was soon reined in by the Chinese government.
Anbang was then put under partial control of the state and ordered to sell off some assets to reduce debt.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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