The Westin Hotel in Sydney is one of few large corporate hotels on the market. Picture: Simon Bullard. Source: News Corp Australia
China’s Sunshine Insurance Group is among a host of big-ticket international investors looking to acquire Sydney’s luxury Westin Hotel at a price of more than $400 million — no doubt attracted by the prime property being one of few large corporate hotels for sale.
Apart from Sunshine Insurance Group, which recently paid a record $463m buying the nearby Sheraton on the Park in Sydney’s Elizabeth Street, other bidders on the Westin Hotel include the Chinese investment house Bright Ruby.
Bright Ruby has already signalled its interest in Australian hotels and is about to conclude its much-touted deal to buy the five-star 600-room Hilton Hotel in nearby George Street for a price of more than $450m.
Meanwhile, expressions of interest in the 416-room Westin Hotel, which is being sold by Singapore’s GIC, close at the end of next week.
GIC bought the newly built Westin in 2002 for only $160m.
China’s Fu Wah International, which bought Melbourne’s landmark Park Hyatt hotel for $135m about one year ago from Singapore’s GIC, is also a keen contender in the race to buy the Westin Hotel.
In fact, most major hotel buyers have looked at the Westin Hotel because it is one of few large corporate hotels presently on the market, while its hotel management agreement with American hospitality giant Starwood, which controls the Westin brand, expires within four years.
Malaysian giant Mulpha and Singapore’s City Developments are also said to have inspected the Westin, which is being marketed by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels and Colliers International.
The Sunshine Insurance Group has already flagged its interest in acquiring more Australian hotel assets.
Apart from buying the 557-room Sheraton on the Park Hotel, Sunshine has also bought a 100-room resort-style property in the NSW Hunter Valley called Chateau Elan for about $40m.
Sunshine, China’s seventh-largest insurer, recently agreed to buy the Baccarat Hotel in New York for more than $US230m ($300m), which equates to more than $US2m a room, a new New York hotel room record.
Sunshine chairman Wei Gong Zhang recently told The Weekend Australian that he wanted a global spread of assets and would continue buying in Australia, the US and Europe.
JLL Hotels chief executive hotels and hospitality Craig Collins and JLL Hotels senior vice-president Peter Harper could not be reached for comment on the Westin deal in Sydney last night.
