Shown above is the head office of Mirae Asset Global Investment, which scored a clean victory against China’s Dajia Insurance in a two-year lawsuit. Photo courtesy of Mirae Asset Global Investment

Chinese insurer forced to pay $6 billion to Korea’s Mirae Asset

South Korea’s Mirae Asset Global Investments announced on Dec. 9 that Delaware’s top court upheld its victory against Dajia Insurance Group from China.

The Seoul-based company said that the verdict means Mirae’s eventual victory in a protracted court battle with the Chinese insurer, which started early 2020.

In Sept. 2019, a consortium headed by Mirae Asset Global Investments and Mirae Asset Securities agreed to snap up a portfolio of 15 premium U.S. hotels from beleaguered Dajia, formerly Anbang, at $5.8 billion and made a 10 percent deposit.

But Mirae Asset sent a default notice in April 2020, contending that Dajia did not keep its obligation of keeping complete ownership of the 15 hotels before wrapping up the hotel deal.

As a result, Mirae Asset claimed that none of the four major title insurance firms in the United States were willing to underpin the contract.

In answer, Dajia claimed that Mirae Asset had reneged like other nervous buyers due to the aftermath of the novel coronavirus, filing a lawsuit at the Delaware court.

The court sided with Mirae Asset at its initial verdict late last year, noting that Mirae Asset’s choice to scuttle the contract was justified by Dajia’s drastic changes to its hotel operations without seeking okay from Mirae Asset.

Dajia made an appeal this March, and the state’s supreme court affirmed the original ruling, saying that Dajia breached a clause in the sale agreement, which requires the hotels to operate in the ordinary course of business.

“We will get the $58.2 million deposit back along with interests. In addition, Dajia will have to pay costs for the transactions and lawsuits to us,” a Mirae Asset official said.
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