Anbang Group has acquired the DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station from U.S. private equity firm Blackstone for $391.6 million. This is the latest deal the Beijing-based company has made with Blackstone. According to Mingtiandi, PropertyNL reported global real estate consultancy CBRE advised Blackstone in the sale of the 557-room Amsterdam hotel near the main train station of the capital.
Blackstone acquired the hotel as part of the Mint Hotel portfolio it purchased from Lloyds Banking Group in 2011, a deal that reportedly went for $950 million. Blackstone later rebranded the property to a DoubleTree by Hilton. The other seven hotels within the portfolio are in the UK and were similarly rebranded as Hiltons. Blackstone sold about 25 percent of Hilton to China's HNA Group last year.
Anbang currently owns about $30 billion in property and other assets. Its recent Amsterdam hotel purchase follows through with CE and founder Wu Xiaohui's investment interests in Europe while adding to its list of deals with Blackstone.
A Perfect Partnership...
The partnership began in 2014 with Anbang's purchase of New York's Waldorf Astoria from Blackstone for $1.95 billion. An even bigger deal with Blackstone followed with the $5.5-billion purchase of 15 properties of the 16 Strategic Hotels & Resorts portfolio in 2016. At the end of last year, the firm purchased Blackstone's Dutch office portfolio for about $546.4 million to enter the European property market.
Within its partnership with the firm, Anbang has purchased over $9 billion worth of overseas property from Blackstone in less than three years.
...Almost
The two groups also had a few failed deals. Last year, Anbang's $14 billion bid for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and $2.3 billion bid for Japanese residential assets both fell through.
The investment company experienced another failed deal in March when New York developer Kushner Companies, formerly run by President Trump's son-in-law, decided to end its talks with Anbang to begin a joint venture to redevelop Manhattan's 666 Fifth Avenue office tower.
Last month, Anbang denied social media rumors that Wu Xiaohui had been detained by Chinese authorities. The company threatened a lawsuit against China's news site Caixin after it reported that Anbang had violated financial regulations.
Despite these recent media accounts of legal and financial issues and a series of failed deals, Anbang has remained active in the investment industry. The company reported today that it is increasing its investment in South Korea's Tong Yang Life Insurance and Allianz Life Insurance Korea by $42.68 billion. The investor bought 42 percent of Tong Yang Life Insurance in 2015 and 100 percent of the South Korea business of Germany's Allianz Group in 2016.