A large, Vancouver-based company whose holdings include seniors retirement complexes in B.C., Alberta and Quebec, including the Williams Lake Seniors Village, may be sold to a Chinese-based company with what some call a “murky ownership structure”.
Anbang wants to buy a majority stake in Retirement Concepts in a deal thought to be worth more 1-billion dollars.
If approved, that would give the Beijing-based Insurance giant an important role in the delivery of health care in B.C.
Due to the value of the proposed deal, the federal government must sign off on it and right now, there are calls for Ottawa to nix the purchase.
The sale is now before the Investment Review Division because it exceeds the $600-million threshold and the final decision will ultimately be made by Navdeep Bains, the Liberal Innovation Minister.
Anbang is the same company which recently purchased the Bental Towers in downtown Vancouver.
It’s ownership has been called into question because it appears a majority of it’s 100 investors are related to the chairman.