China has taken over the privately owned Anbang Insurance. This was the Chinese holding company that paid $1.95 billion for the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan. The country's authorities also charged its chairman with alleged economic crimes.
Anbang is a global insurance and finance company said to be worth about £222 billion, earning it a place last year in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s wealthiest companies. It has been on a acquisition spree, buying everything from Asian insurance businesses to Canadian retirement homes.
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission yesterday confirmed months of speculation surrounding Anbang. This had been fuelled by Beijing’s efforts to rein in spending sprees by Chinese companies on prominent overseas properties and to stem their rising debts.
Before it came under investigation in June, Anbang spent more than $6 billion on several top US hotels.
Until the detention of Wu Xiaohui, its chairman, last June, Anbang Insurance had been at the vanguard of a group of Chinese conglomerates to come from nowhere to global prominence.
