Starwood sells $2bn hotel stake to China Life

Private investment firm Starwood Capital Group said Tuesday it sold a stake in a roughly $2 billion portfolio of US hotels to a group led by China’s largest insurance company, China Life Insurance. Starwood said China Life would serve as the lead investor to a group, which includes sovereign-wealth funds, in the portfolio comprising 280 hotels in 40 states. According to The Wall Street Journal, Chinese insurers have shown greater appetite for US real-estate assets lately. Starwood Capital last year reached a deal to sell the posh Baccarat Hotel in Manhattan to China’s Sunshine Insurance Group. Anbang Insurance paid nearly $2 billion for the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan and bid $14 billion for Starwood Hotels, which Marriott International ultimately bought after Anbang walked away from the deal.