Starwood Hotels and Marriott International in $13.6bn tie-up

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide yesterday agreed to a higher $13.6bn (€12bn) offer from Marriott International, a proposal that trumped a bid by China’s Anbang Insurance.

The combined company will have more than 5,500 hotels with 1.1m rooms worldwide, giving Marriott a greater presence in markets such as Europe, Latin America, and Asia and allow it to better compete with apartment-sharing startups such as Airbnb.

Starwood, the owner of the Sheraton and Westin hotel brands, said Anbang’s proposal no longer constituted a “superior proposal” and under the revised merger agreement it was not allowed to engage in discussions with Anbang.

Marriott’s new stock-and-cash offer is worth $79.53 per share.

A group led by Anbang had challenged Marriott with an initial non-binding offer of $12.8bn earlier this month, revising it later to $13.16bn, or $78 per share in cash.

A deal with Anbang would have likely faced a review by the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, an inter-agency panel that reviews deals to ensure they do not harm national security.

The Marriott-Starwood combination will create the world’s largest hotel chain with top brands including Sheraton, Ritz Carlton and the Autograph Collection. Marriott in November offered $12.2bn, or $72.08 per share, for Starwood.

Marriott has cleared pre-merger antitrust review in the US and Canada. Approvals from the EU and China are pending.