The bidding war for Starwood Hotels and Resorts has ended suddenly — and strangely.

喜达屋酒店及度假村国际集团(Starwood Hotels and Resorts)并购战突然莫名其妙地终结了。

The current high bidder for the hotel chain, a consortium led by the Anbang Insurance Group of China, withdrew its $14 billion offer on Thursday.

目前，此家连锁酒店的最高出价者，由中国安邦保险领衔的财团在周四正式撤回了价值140亿美元的收购方案。

In a statement on Thursday, the consortium said: “We were attracted to the opportunity presented by Starwood because of its high-quality, leading global hotel brands, which met many of our acquisition criteria, including the ability to generate consistent, long-term returns over time. However, due to various market considerations, the consortium has determined not to proceed further.”

财团在周四的一份声明中称：“我们被喜达屋酒店的高质量以及全球领先的酒店品牌所吸引，这符合我们的收购标准，包括其产生持续、长期回报的能力。但是，出于多重的市场因素考量，财团决定不再继续该笔收购。”

The statement did not identify what the market considerations were.

此份声明并未指出究竟是哪些市场因素。

The withdrawal leaves Marriott International as the winner with its current $13.25 billion offer.

安邦的放弃使万豪国际(Marriott International)以当前价值132.5亿美元的收购方案成为此场收购战的胜者。

A combination of Marriott and Starwood, the operator of the Westin and Sheraton chains, would create the biggest hotel company in the world, with more than 5,500 owned or franchised hotels and 1.1 million rooms.

喜达屋经营着连锁酒店品牌威斯汀(Westin)和喜来登(Sheraton)，万豪国际与喜达屋的合并将会成为全球最大的酒店集团，旗下将拥有逾5500家直营或特许经营酒店和110万个房间。

Even though Anbang had offered more money — its second bid was $82.75 a share in cash, as opposed to Marriott’s most recent offer of $77.94 in cash and stock, as of Thursday’s prices — investors and analysts had raised questions about whether the Chinese-led consortium could actually close on its offer.

尽管安邦出了更多高的价钱，但投资者和分析人士始终质疑这个由中国牵头的财团能否真实兑现其并购方案。依据周四的收盘价格，安邦以每股作价82.75美元的现金收购方案以反击万豪提出的每股作价77.94美元的现金加股票的收购方案。

The abrupt withdrawal of the offer raised new questions, including whether the Chinese government, which has close ties with Anbang, had blocked the proposed transaction, or whether the insurer and its allies had run into issues with the financing for the deal.

突然撤回收购要约的行为引发新的疑问，其中包括，与安邦关系密切的中国政府是否阻止了此项拟议交易？安邦保险和它的联合投标人是否在此项交易的融资方面遇到问题？

The Anbang consortium included J. Christopher Flowers’ buyout firm, J. C. Flowers & Company, and the Primavera Capital Group, whose chairman, Fred Hu, is the former chairman of Goldman Sachs for China.

由安邦保险领衔的财团中包括了美国私募股权公司J.C.Flowers以及由前高盛（亚洲）(Goldman Sachs for Asia)董事长胡祖六所领导的春华资本集团(Primavera Capital Group)。

Anbang had initially sought to break up Starwood’s first deal with Marriott by offering $78 a share, a proposal that was fully documented.

安邦起初曾试图以每股78美元的报价破坏喜达屋与万豪的初始交易，并且收购方案资料完备。

The second bid by the Chinese insurer, by contrast, had several open questions. In a statement saying that Anbang’s second bid was “reasonably likely to lead to a ‘superior proposal,’” Starwood noted that the newer offer was nonbinding and that the two sides needed to hammer out “nonprice terms.”

相比之下，安邦保险提出的第二份收购方案却有些尚未解决的问题。喜达屋董事会在一份声明中称，安邦提出的第二份收购方案“有可能会产生一份‘更优方案’”，但因最新方案是非约束性的，因而双方仍需敲定一些“非价格条款”。