Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has advised Anbang Insurance Group in its $13.2 billion cash offer to buy U.S.-based hospitality giant Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, which tapped Cravath, Swaine & Moore as its legal counsel.
Another bidder Marriott International Inc. is represented by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.
A group led by Anbang had challenged Marriott with an initial non-binding offer of $12.8 billion on March 14, raising it later to $13.16 billion, or $78 per share in cash. But Marriot tried to lock down its purchase of Starwood with a sweetened bid for $13.6 billion on March 22.
Skadden’s deal team is led by New York-based partners Eileen Nugent, Audrey Sokoloff, Michael Civale and Stephanie Teicher as well as Beijing-based partners Daniel Dusek and Peter Huang.
Both Sullivan & Cromwell and Debevoise & Plimpton are providing legal service to the deal’s financial advisers including Citi, Deutsche Bank and Lazard.
The Cravath team is headed by M&A partners Scott A. Barshay, Damien R. Zoubek, Joseph D. Zavaglia and Keith Hallam, with support from partners Lauren Angelilli, Eric W. Hilfers, Jonathan J. Katz, Matthew Morreale and Christine A. Varney.
This proposal is the latest in a spate of U.S. hotel purchases that Anbang has made recently. Chinese insurers are racing to acquire high-yielding assets as they strive to keep pace with the policy liabilities of the country's aging population. U.S. assets are also seen as a good hedge against weakness in the Chinese yuan.
If Anbang succeeds with its offer, the acquisition would be the largest ever by a Chinese company in the United States. It would not comment on whether it was planning a new bid.
The consortium led by Anbang includes private equity firms J.C. Flowers & Co and Primavera Capital.
"It's likely that the Anbang consortium will increase its offer because that group may be motivated more by obtaining Western assets and shifting capital outside China than by generating value or earnings accretion," Nomura Securities International Inc analysts wrote in a note.