New York’s landmark Waldorf Astoria hotel has been snapped up by a Chinese insurance company for $1.95bn (£1.2bn).
The Hilton Worldwide hotel said it would continue to run the business for 100 years after the sale to China’s Anbang Insurance Group, in the latest deal to see a Chinese company acquire an internationally known name. The hotel, renowned for its art deco design, will also be renovated to “restore the property to its historic grandeur”, Hilton said.
The luxury hotel on Manhattan’s Park Avenue opened in October 1931 as the tallest and largest hotel in the world. In 1949 the management rights were acquired by Conrad Hilton, who called the property “the greatest of the them all”. His great granddaughter, the heiress Paris Hilton, grew up in the hotel. It has hosted every US president since Herbert Hoover.
It was also briefly home to Marilyn Monroe in 1955, who lived in a $1,000-a-week suite. A decade earlier, the hotel had been the setting for “Weekend at The Waldorf” starring Ginger Rogers, the first big film shot entirely in a hotel and away from Hollywood’s studios.
The iconic hotel building that occupies an entire block became an official New York City landmark in 1993, joining the likes of the Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge.
Hilton Worldwide said it intends to use the proceeds from the sale to acquire additional hotel assets in the US.
Anbang, a Beijing-based insurer with more than 30,000 employees, joins a string of Chinese companies taking stakes in big brands.
The sale of the Waldorf Astoria comes a year after Chinese investment firm Fosun International bought another New York landmark property, the One Chase Manhattan Plaza, the former headquarters of Chase Manhattan Bank.
In the UK, China’s state-owned Bright Food bought a 60% stake in the 80-year-old breakfast cereal Weetabix in 2012 adding to its growing portfolio of western brands.
