A pedestrian walks past W Hotel Hollywood signage in Hollywood, Calif., on Monday, March 21, 2016. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. is the owner of W brand hotels.Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
This week's high-stakes tug of war for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide ended Friday with U.S.-based Marriott emerging the victor after China's Anbang hoisted the white flag.
One of the biggest questions posed by the back-and-forth tussle for the keys to the hotel group was: Who are these Anbang guys, anyway?
Well, it's a little complicated, which is not exactly unusual when trying to untangle the ownership structure of Chinese companies. For starters, Anbang Insurance Group's chairman seems to be a bit of a mystery man himself, as The New York Times reported on Tuesday in a story headlined: "Starwood Bidder is a Reclusive Chinese Insurer with Opaque Backing."
Wu Xiaohu, who the Financial Times says has never given a press interview, is using his insurance company as a springboard to global property investment and has been on a hotel shopping spree, having scooped up 16 American luxury resorts to date, including the storied Waldorf-Astoria last year.
Now, back to that ownership structure thing. Anbang appears to comprise 37 intermingled holding companies, according to the NYT story, some of whom are connected to higher-ups in the country.
Take Mr .Wu, who according to sources reported on online news site Caixin, formed ties with the family of Deng Xiaoping, one of China's most revered leaders, after marrying Mr. Deng's granddaughter, Zhuo Ran.
And then there's 68-year-old Chen Xiaolu, the son of a top military commander under Mao Zedong, the late general Chen Yi. Chen Xiaolu is listed as an Anbang director, despite not owning any shares and claiming he has never agreed to be on the board. (The operative word here might be "agreed.") Mr. Chen even felt compelled to go so far as saying he's not running the show: "Party Legend's Son Denies He Is De Facto Head of Insurance Firm."
(And to his credit, Mr. Chen is a man not afraid to admit if he's been wrong, as the South China Morning Post reported in 2013: "Chen Xiaolu apologises for torture of teachers at Beijing alma mater.")
But the battle for Starwood got particular scrutiny as it would have been the biggest Chinese acquisition in the U.S., and the lack of transparency was a concern. Christopher Balding, a professor of finance and economics at Peking University's campus in Shenzhen, told the NYT: "Any time somebody in China magically snaps their fingers and has a lot of money, in this case a colossal amount of money, that sets off red flags for me," he said.
"In China, when people are hiding this amount of information, it's for a reason."
Back to Mr. Wu. Although he doesn't do interviews, he has spoken publicly. In a speech delivered to Harvard students a year ago entitled "Go with your dreams," Mr. Wu explained that a global mindset creates global opportunities:
"For instance, if you choose to stay in rural villages, you can only meet common village girls. Yet if you come to Paris, you will have the chance to lay your eyes on the Mona Lisa," Mr. Wu told Harvard University students early last year.
Top banana news
The Irish-based banana concern Fyffes is knee-deep in manure. Canadian manure, as it happens. Fyffes announced Friday that it had picked up Leamington, Ont.-based mushroom grower Highline Produce in a move the company says will give it access to global markets.
It was just two years ago that Fyffes merged with Chiquita to become the world's biggest banana merchant.
But in February, Fyffes found itself knee-deep in a figurative kind of manure when it was accused by British trade union GMB of having "no respect" for workers' rights, and called for the company to be ejected from the Ethical Trade Initiative, a London-based organization that promotes fair treatment of workers worldwide. Fyffes has yet to respond to the allegations.
In other banana news, on Thursday The Globe's Dave McGinn had a look at the latest viral trend of examining the age-old question of whether you really can slip on a banana peel. (Check out the videos for the answer.)
But the top banana story recently concerned the former owner of the bankrupt Long Island Banana Corp. in New York, who was convicted last month of embezzling $750,000 (U.S.) from the company pension fund, as Reuters reported.
The lawyer for Thomas Hoey had told the court the money was not stolen, but simply borrowed, and not yet paid back. With the "borrowed" funds, Mr. Hoey took trips to England, Spain, Mexico and Aruba, and puzzlingly, stayed in luxury hotels in Manhattan and Long Island, despite having homes in both places.
The verdict followed separate convictions for cocaine dealing and third-degree assault. The "Banana King" appears to be quite a bruiser. His lawyer says he plans to appeal.
A juicy new enterprise
It's taken three years to raise $100-million (U.S.) in funding, but the company finally marked its launch on Thursday. Despite that big cash raise, it's not likely to become a major disruptor: It's a juice maker. Okay, so it's "the world's first cold-press juicing system," as CEO and founder Doug Evans announced in a tweet Thursday. But it's still a juice maker.
For about $700 (U.S.), the Juicero, a Keurig-like contraption, squeezes pouches (not included) of hand-picked fruit to create a juice that will "help you achieve true health and longevity," Mr. Evans said.
The juicer is WiFi connected (which one would expect of any juicer in the digital age), can tell the user the nutritional value of what they're drinking, order refills and walk the dog. Well, okay, I'm just kidding on that last one, but the Juicero is still one flashy juicer.
And it's no flaky, New-Agey business, either. According to Business Insider, it has backing from the likes of Campbell Soup, Google Ventures, Artis Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, with additional funding from Two Sigma Ventures, First Beverage Group, Acre Ventures, Double Bottom Line Ventures, Thrive Capital and Vast Ventures among others.
"This product, when you drink it, it's alive," says Stuart Peterson, a partner at Artis Ventures. That sounds pretty fresh, but it's not something Disclosures particularly wants to experience when eating or drinking anything.
Shiver me timbers
What could possibly go wrong?
A landmark pleasure cruise from Crystal Cruises is to set sail on Aug. 16 from the town of Seward, Alaska, to New York via the forbidding Northwest Passage, the ice-clogged route that has claimed countless lives over the centuries. Now some of the lowest sea ice levels ever recorded mean the passage can be traversed at the end of summer, but this will be the first time paying passengers will do so on a large scale.
It all sounds very exciting, but depending on your perspective, it's either reassuring, or very worrying, that Canadian and U.S. coast guard officials will be training on April 13 to develop a plan for a cruise ship catastrophe, according to a report in the Guardian. In fact, the article's headline asks: "A New Titanic?" (Don't panic, it's just asking.)
More than 600 crew and 1,000 passengers will be aboard, ponying up big time – fares start at $21,555 (U.S.) if you're slumming it, up to $120,095 for the best penthouse. If you book now, you get a $1,000 discount. (Seriously). The cruise line's spokesman Paul Garcia said the Arctic sailing is already completely booked, and the company plans to return in 2017.
Such ice-dodging cruises are likely to only ever be a niche market in the $40-billion global cruise industry, but the chance to see whales, polar bears and icebergs up close (but not too close), all the while being entertained by singers, comedians and a ventriloquist, will no doubt prove irresistible to some. But maybe not for Nome, Alaska, Mayor Richard Beneville, whose town is a port of call.
"If something were to go wrong, it would be very, very bad," Mr. Beneville said