SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean investment bank Mirae Asset Daewoo Co Ltd said on Tuesday it won a U.S. court case against Anbang Insurance Group, after Mirae Asset affiliates scrapped a $5.8 billion deal to buy 15 U.S. hotels from Anbang.
A consortium led by Mirae agreed last year to buy the hotels from Anbang, which had been selling some of its overseas assets after the Chinese government took control of the troubled insurer in 2018.
But the coronavirus pandemic put several deals at risk this year, as the tourism industry was one of the hardest hit by global travel restrictions.
Anbang had filed a suit saying Mirae Asset affiliates must fulfill their promised payment for the hotels, while Mirae affiliates filed a counterclaim that Anbang return the deposit, pay transaction costs, and related litigation costs, Mirae said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
A Delaware court on Monday rejected Anbang’s claims for payment and ruled Anbang should return the deposit and pay expenses of $3.685 million, according to the court document reviewed by Reuters.
Anbang has been liquidated and some of its assets have been revamped into a new entity called Dajia Insurance Group. A Dajia official could not be reached immediately.
Shares in Mirae Asset rose 6% in Seoul on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Cheng Leng in Beijing; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
