China’s Anbang: From auto insurance roots to global buyer of luxury hotels

http://atimes.com/2016/03/chinas-anbang-from-auto-insurance-roots-to-global-buyer-of-luxury-hotels/

China’s Anbang: From auto insurance roots to global buyer of luxury hotels
By Asia Unhedged on March 15, 2016
(From Reuters)

China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co has emerged from near obscurity 18 months ago to sign deals worth more than $30 billion, moving into the big league of global real estate and finance.

The Beijing-based firm has offered $12.8 billion for U.S. hotel operator Starwood (HOT.N) and also agreed this month to pay Blackstone Group (BX.N) $6.5 billion for Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc, whose 16 luxury properties include the Four Seasons Washington D.C.

Established in 2004 as an automotive and property insurer by chairman Wu Xiaohui, a native of China’s entrepreneurial coastal city Wenzhou, Anbang is looking to use its 1.65 trillion yuan ($253 billion) in assets to transform into a worldwide investor.

“Anbang will have a global footprint. In 10 years, Anbang will have companies on all the world’s continents,” Wu, who is 49 and married to Deng Zhuorui, a granddaughter of Chinese patriarch Deng Xiaoping, told students at Harvard University last year.