New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel sold to Chinese company for nearly $2bn

A Chinese insurance company is buying one New York’s most glamorous hotels – the Waldorf Astoria in midtown Manhattan.

Anbang Insurance Group Co Ltd is purchasing the Waldorf for $1.95bn from a subsidiary of Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. Anbang will pay Hilton a $100m deposit, and is expected to pay off the hotel’s $525m mortgage as part of the deal. Hilton will continue to manage the hotel for the next 100 years.

“We are very excited to be entering into this long-term relationship with Anbang, which will ensure that the Waldorf Astoria New York represents the brand’s world-class standards for generations to come,” said Christopher J Nassetta, Hilton Worldwide CEO.

The new owners are slated to renovate of the Art Deco building, restoring it to its “historic grandeur”. The 60,000 square foot hotel was opened in 1931, in its second location. The hotel was first was built before the turn of the century on what is now the site of the Empire State building. The Waldorf was famously called “the greatest of them all” by Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton hotel company.

Hilton purchased the Waldorf in 1949. In December, Hilton raised $2.35bn in the largest ever initial public offering by a hotel company. The majority of Hilton is now owned by Blackstone Group LP, a private equity firm. Hilton plans to use cash from the Waldorf’s sale to buy more hotels across the US, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Closing is scheduled for New Year’s Eve, though it could take until 31 March 2015 to finalize the sale.

Andang is a Beijing-based life, health and property insurance company with 20 million customers and 30,000 employees, according to a Hilton press release. The company has $113bn in assets.

More than 4,200 properties in 93 countries are under the Hilton company’s control. Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts is a subsidiary of Hilton that owns the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. The subsidiary owns another 27 hotels around the world.