Strategic Hotels & Resorts

{{Short description|American REIT in the hospitality industry}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Strategic Hotels & Resorts

| industry = Hospitality

| hq_location = USA

| hq_location_city = New York

}}

Strategic Hotels & Resorts is an American REIT in the hospitality industry.[https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BEE:US Strategic Hotels & Resorts], Bloomberg Business It was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange as BEE.[https://www.forbes.com/sites/dividendchannel/2015/03/02/strategic-hotels-resorts-larger-than-sp-500-component-denbury-resources/ Strategic Hotels & Resorts Larger Than S&P 500 Component Denbury Resources], Forbes, 3/2/2015 The company owns 18 luxury hotels, 17 of which are located in the United States and one of which is in Germany.{{Cite web|url=http://www.strategichotels.com/portfolio.php|title=Strategic Hotels & Resorts: Portfolio}}

Through his investment firm, Cascade Investment, Bill Gates has purchased 1.74 million shares of Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc.’s common stock at a total price of $21.45 million – totaling 9.8% of the company's shares. Gates is the sole owner of the investment firm.{{cite news | url=https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150810/CRED03/150819997/bill-gates-could-acquire-chicago-s-strategic-hotels | title=Could Bill Gates be the next owner of Strategic Hotels? | first=ALBY | last=GALLUN | work=Crain Communications | date=August 10, 2015}}

In September 2015, Strategic Hotels & Resorts sold itself to The Blackstone Group for $6 billion.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/business/dealbook/blackstone-agrees-to-buy-strategic-hotels-and-resorts.html|title=Blackstone Agrees to Buy Strategic Hotels and Resorts|last=Bray|first=Chad|date=September 8, 2015|work=The New York Times|accessdate=September 8, 2015}}

In March 2016, only 3 months after the Blackstone transaction closed, Anbang Insurance Group purchased Strategic for a price that was announced as $6.5 billion.{{Cite news|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/fd6b524a-e92e-11e5-888e-2eadd5fbc4a4,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Ffd6b524a-e92e-11e5-888e-2eadd5fbc4a4.html&_i_referer=&classification=conditional_standard&iab=barrier-app|title=China's Anbang agrees $6.5bn hotel deal with Blackstone|last1=Massoudi|first1=Arash|date=2016-03-13|last2=Fontanella-Khan|first2=James|newspaper=Financial Times|issn=0307-1766|access-date=2016-03-17}} The deal ended up being for $5.5 billion, however, after Blackstone was forbidden by the US Government to sell the Hotel del Coronado to overseas buyers with the other Strategic properties, due to its location adjacent to Naval Base Coronado.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-21/anbang-is-said-to-hire-bank-of-america-for-luxury-hotels-sale|title = Anbang Hires Bank of America for Luxury Hotels Sale|newspaper = Bloomberg.com|date = 21 November 2018}}

In November 2018 it was reported that, under pressure from the Chinese government to offload overseas assets, Anbang had hired Bank of America to solicit buyers for Strategic Hotels & Resorts. On August 12, 2019, Bloomberg News reported{{Cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-12/mirae-said-to-emerge-as-lead-bidder-for-anbang-hotel-portfolio|title = Mirae Emerges as Lead Bidder for Anbang Hotel Portfolio|newspaper = Bloomberg.com|date = 12 August 2019}} that Mirae Asset Financial Group from South Korea was a lead bidder for the portfolio.