China's Anbang and Blackstone in $6.5bn US hotel deal

Blackstone is selling Strategic Hotels & Resorts, which owns 16 properties including the Four Seasons resorts in Arizona and Wyoming, just three months after buying the company themselves.

The deal marks the biggest US property purchase by a mainland Chinese buyer.

Anbang is also part of a group seeking to gatecrash a separate hotel deal.

US hotelier Marriott International said a consortium led by Anbang had made an "unsolicited" offer for Starwood Hotels.

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Al Qaeda claims responsibility for Ivory Coast hotel shooting in which 16 'including four Europeans' killed at resort

Attack on L'Etoile du Sud hotel in resort popular with Westerners claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb

Al Qaeda's North African branch has claimed responsibility for a terror attack on an Ivory Coast beach resort on Sunday in which 16 people, including four Europeans, were killed.

Six gunmen targeted hotels on a beach at Grand Bassam, a weekend retreat popular with Western expatriates about 25 miles east of the commercial capital Abidjan, before being killed in clashes with Ivorian security forces, the government said.

A top French expert said that the attack was "clearly against France", which has former colonial ties with the country and a continent of 600 soldiers nearby.

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China's Anbang challenges Marriott with $13 billion Starwood offer

China's Anbang Insurance Group Co has challenged Marriott International Inc's (MAR.O) merger with U.S. hotel operator Starwood with a $12.8 billion cash offer, burnishing its credentials as one of China's top corporate acquirers.

The non-binding bid, unveiled on Monday, just days after Anbang agreed to acquire Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc from buyout firm Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) for $6.5 billion, would represent by far the biggest Chinese investment in U.S. real estate assets.

Chinese insurers are rushing to acquire high-yielding assets as they struggle to keep up with the policy liabilities of the country's aging population. U.S. assets are also seen as a good hedge against any future weakness in the yuan.

The head of China's insurance regulator, Xiang Junbo, wrote in January in a magazine published by the country's central bank that Chinese insurers should venture overseas for investments. These investments, however, are not without hurdles.

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