Anbang has raised the stakes in the bidding battle for Starwood Hotels & Resorts with its latest $14bn offer — but its reliance on high-cost borrowing carries plenty of risks, analysts have warned.
Such funding has fuelled Anbang Insurance Group’s global shopping spree — including its $2bn purchase of the Waldorf Astoria — and seen it evolve from an obscure Chinese car insurer into a $290bn global conglomerate with investment strategies more akin to the world of private equity.
Mystery and speculation surrounds the identity of investors who boosted Anbang’s registered capital fivefold in an eight-month period in 2014. But chairman Wu Xiaohui’s ability to draw on political connections to raise equity is only one part of the story.