Anbang, the Chinese state-controlled insurer, has filed a lawsuit against South Korean asset manager Mirae, accusing it of “suffering from buyer’s remorse” and failing to pay $5.8bn for 15 US luxury hotels including the JW Marriott Essex House overlooking New York’s Central Park.
The legal action in Delaware came after Mirae missed a payment due on April 17 for Anbang’s Strategic Hotels portfolio. The Korean company, which manages about $146bn in assets, has been trying to renegotiate the deal, arguing the hotels had lost value during the coronavirus shutdowns.
Mirae’s failure to close the deal for Strategic Hotels is the latest in a wave multibillion-dollar US deals that are in danger of collapsing as buyers look for ways out of transactions they agreed before the pandemic.