Mirae Asset says sued after deadline miss on $5.8 bln Anbang U.S. hotels deal

Mirae Asset Securities

28/04/2020 06:04

SEOUL, April 28 (Reuters) - South Korean asset manager Mirae
Asset Global Investments has been sued over a $5.8 billion deal
to buy 15 U.S. hotels from China's Anbang Insurance Group after
missing a deadline for the deal's closing, a Mirae spokesman
said on Tuesday. 
    A consortium led by Mirae agreed last year to buy the hotels
in U.S. cities, including in New York, San Francisco and Los
Angeles, from Anbang, which had been selling down its overseas
assets after the Chinese government took control of the troubled
insurer in 2018.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2620HB 
    The Mirae spokesman said the deal was originally due to be
closed by April 17 but has been delayed because certain
conditions were not met by the seller.
    He declined to give details of the conditions and said the
Mirae consortium is still pursuing the deal and coordinating
with the seller. 
    The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that China's
Dajia Insurance Group, which has taken over from Anbang the
process of selling the 15-hotel portfolio, asked a Delaware
court to compel Mirae to complete the purchase for $5.8 billion,
citing a filing at the Delaware Court of Chancery.
    Dajia Insurance Group is a new company formed to take over
assets from Anbang. Dajia, which China has said will remain
privately owned, did not immediately reply to Reuters' emailed
request for comment.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2AM062
    It was not immediately clear if other members of the
consortium, which is made up of Mirae affiliates and includes
Mirae Asset Daewoo  006800.KS , were also sued. It was also not
clear whether any damages were being sought.  
    While the reasons behind the missed deadline on Mirae's deal
are unclear, a growing number of mergers and acquisitions are in
danger of collapsing or being delayed as the coronavirus
pandemic impacts valuations and clouds the business outlook and
funding prospects.
    U.S. planemaker Boeing Co  BA.N  cancelled a $4.2 billion
deal for Embraer SA's  EMBR3.SA  commercial aviation division
over the weekend, prompting the Brazilian company to initiate
arbitration.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2CF0SJ
    Canada's convenience store chain Alimentation Couche-Tard
Inc  ATDb.TO  shelved a $5.6 billion buyout of petrol station
operator Caltex Australia Ltd  CTX.AX  last week as fuel demand
plunges and it looks inward to get through the crisis.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2C70PP
    Travel and tourism industries are one of the hardest hit by
the pandemic, with hotels in affected regions seeing sharp
declines in bookings, according to analysts and industry
sources.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2AX6S7
    South Korean state-owned banks said last week they would
provide up to 2.9 trillion won ($2.37 billion) in combined
liquidity to support Korean Air Lines  003490.KS  and Asiana
Airlines  020560.KS  as the travel industry reels from the
coronavirus crisis.
($1 = 1,223.4000 won)

 (Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Cheng Leng in
Beijing; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
 ((jungyoon.lee@tr.com; +82 2 6936 1467;))