Starwood weighs up improved Anbang bid

Starwood said Monday it was weighing an improved takeover bid from a group led by Chinese insurer Anbang rivalling its agreed deal with Marriott International.
In the latest turn in the bidding war for the US hotel operator, Starwood said the consortium led by Anbang Insurance proposed Saturday to pay US$82.75 per share, an all-cash deal valued at US$14 billion.
That tops Marriott’s bid which the Starwood board is still recommending, Starwood said in a statement.
Marriott’s cash-and-stock offer was worth US$13.6 billion when Starwood said on March 21 that it had accepted the sweetened bid, Agence France-Presse reported.
Starwood said that it had received an improved offer from Anbang on Saturday of US$81 per share but that following discussions, the consortium sweetened it again, to US$82.75.
“There can be no assurance that discussions will result in a binding  proposal from the consortium, that the Starwood Board will determine that any such proposal is a ‘Superior Proposal’ or that a transaction with the  consortium will be approved or consummated on any particular terms or at all,”  said Starwood in a statement.
Anbang, with assets of US$254 billion, is on a shopping spree in the US hotel sector after scooping up the landmark Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan for nearly US$2 billion in 2014.
Starwood said its stockholder meeting to consider the merger with Marriott would convene Monday as previously announced and be immediately adjourned until April 8.