Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Dentons, Greenberg Traurig and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson have scored lead advisory roles in Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc’s sale of its flagship Waldorf Astoria New York hotel to Chinese insurance company Anbang Insurance Group Co for $1.95 billion.
Anbang will pay $1.38 million per room for the Manhattan hotel that was once home to Marilyn Monroe, which is one of the highest prices per room ever paid for a U.S. hotel. The Beijing-based insurer will grant Hilton Worldwide a management agreement to continue to operate the property for the next 100 years.
Simpson Thacher and Dentons advised Hilton on the sale, while Skadden, Fried Frank and Greenberg Traurig acted for Anbang.
Real estate practice head Gregory Ressa led the Simpson Thacher team, alongside real estate partner Erik Quarfordt, tax partner John Hart, capital markets partner Edgar Lewandowski and executive compensation and employee benefits partner Greg Grogan. All the partners are based in New York.
The Dentons team was led by Phoenix-based hotel and leisure partners Meghan Cocci and Rick Ross, and also included hotel and leisure partner Mark Daliere in London, intellectual property partner Carol Anne Been in Chicago, hotel and leisure partner David Klein in Atlanta, disputes partner Gary Meyerhoff in New York and corporate partner Todd Liao in Shanghai.
Skadden’s New York team consisted of real estate partners Audrey Sokoloff and Harvey Uris, tax partner Victor Hollender, intellectual property partner Bruce Goldner and corporate restructuring partner Mark McDermott. The team also included Washing D.C. regulatory partner Jamie Boucher and cross-border transactions partner Ivan Schlager, Beijing corporate partner Peter Huang and Shanghai corporate partner Gregory Miao.
New York-based real estate partner Jonathan Mechanic led Fried Frank’s team, with assistance from real estate partners Franz Rassman and David Karnovsky, as well as tax partner Robert Cassanos.
The Greenberg Traurig team was led by real estate partner Robert Ivanhoe in New York.
Anbang manages about 700 billion yuan ($114 billion) worth of assets, according to its website. Based on full occupancy at the Waldorf’s lowest room rate of $329, Anbang would recover its investment in about 10 years.
Hilton’s luxury brand, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, owns 27 properties in cities such as Amsterdam, Chicago, Dubai and Shanghai.
Hilton said it would use the proceeds from the sale to buy more hotels in the United States.
The Waldorf Astoria is the latest iconic New York property to be bought by a Chinese company after last year’s sale of One Chase Manhattan Plaza to Fosun International, controlled by billionaire Guo Guangchang.
