How Deal-Hungry Anbang Went From Waldorf to Woe: QuickTake Q&A

When New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel was sold for $1.95 billion in 2014, it shot the Chinese buyer --- Anbang Insurance Group Co. -- and its chairman Wu Xiaohui to international prominence. That was the first deal in a $13.4 billion acquisition spree that lifted Anbang’s profile while raising questions about its ownership and financing. Those questions only deepened after Wu was detained by Chinese authorities as part of a broad investigation into the sources of funding for the firm’s acquisitions, possible market manipulation by insurers and unspecified “economic crimes.”

It’s a closely held insurance and investment firm headquartered in Beijing, and a relatively young one at that. Anbang started out in 2004 as an auto, property and casualty insurer and only got into life insurance in 2010. Now, it also operates in banking, asset management and financial leasing, with what it says are assets of $290 billion and 30,000-plus employees. In its short existence, the company has expanded to become the No. 2 insurer in China in terms of life insurance premiums, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. The company was mulling an initial public offering in Hong Kong.