Chinese launch new offer in fight for hotels

THE bidding war for the owner of Sheraton and W Hotels intensified after the Chinese came back with a higher offer.

In what has been described as the fiercest takeover battle for years, a consortium led by Chinese insurance giant Anbang sweetened its offer for Starwood Hotel & Resorts to £10.5bn.

That is more than the rival £10.1bn bid tabled by hotels group Marriott and follows a string of tit-for-tat increases that has driven up the price.

The two suitors have been locked in a bidding war since Marriott made its first approach for Starwood in November.

Starwood said it would evaluate whether the latest bid from Anbang is superior to the offer made by Marriott last week.

A deal with Marriott would create the world’s largest hotel group with 5,500 hotels and 1.1m rooms.

It is now thought to be considering whether to come back with a better offer. Marriott’s logic was a deal would give it a greater presence in markets such as Europe, Latin America and Asia. About three-quarters of Marriott’s rooms are in America.

But Starwood has around half of its rooms outside the States which accounted for almost two-thirds of its revenue in 2014.

A newly-combined American group, which would throw together Ritz-Carlton and Sheraton with the boutique W chain, would knock Britain’s InterContinental Hotels off its top slot as the world’s biggest hotel group.

The owner of Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza has seen its shares suffer over disappointment that to date it has not participated in the industry consolidation. They have fallen 4pc since last April.

Starwood essentially put itself up for sale in April, when it said it was considering strategic alternatives.