At least three big Chinese companies are competing for Beijing’s approval to bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, reports The Wall Street Journal. Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels, HNA Group, and China Investment Corp. have each presented proposals to the Chinese government over the past two months.
An unnamed source in the article explained that Starwood has been running a review process for the past several months to scope out merger bids from companies around the world. A bid for the company would likely come at Starwood’s current market value of $12 billion. It is possible that Beijing might discourage a Chinese bid if the price is too high. Jin Jiang and China Investment Corp are both state controlled, and HNA is partially owned by the government.
