Hospitality Lawyer -- Barry Sternlicht and Starwood bet on . . . China!
By Jim Butler, Hotel Lawyer | Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
6 December 2006
Hospitality Lawyer: China. I had no sooner posted my last entry on our expert panel's views for Outlook 2007 as it relates to international markets when I read an update as of December 6, 2007 that Barry Sternlicht and Starwood capital have increased their bet on China! And of course, this comes after a huge investment in India as we discussed in "."Hospitality Lawyer: Sternlicht and Starwood Capital to put $500 million in India for Crillon, '1' Hotels and Residences and budget hotel chain, Campanile
Tom Corcoran, CEO of FelCor, nailed it when he said in today's posting, "When you talk about hot markets, you'd have to say, China, China, China... and India."
Here are the details on the Sternlicht/Starwood investment in China.
China joint venture with Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels
TheStreet.com reported today that Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital entered a strategic relationship with Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels, one of China's largest hotel operators.
Starwood Capital will make a $30 million strategic investment in Jin Jiang. This will make Starwood the largest outside-shareholder in the company. Starwood and Jin Jiang will work together to develop and strengthen each other's hotel business, mainly in China, and will cooperate on hotel business projects.
"Starwood Capital is very excited about the potential for Jin Jiang in China and abroad, and for our future partnership together," said Sternlicht, who built the Starwood Hotels chain into a major industry player before stepping aside last year. Starwood Capital isn't related to the publicly traded company.
"Jin Jiang's geographic reach and portfolio of owned assets across all hotel categories leaves it uniquely positioned to benefit from the explosive growth in the Chinese hotel industry, fueled by rapidly expanding tourism and business travel," Sternlicht said. "By combining Jin Jiang's portfolio, which features irreplaceable hotels in Shanghai and other major Chinese cities, with our track record of creating global brands and enhancing asset value in both the luxury and budget categories, the partnership has the potential to create significant value for both companies going forward."
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