Shearman & Sterling and Davis Polk & Wardwell are advising one of China's biggest hotel operators on a $1.4 billion acquisition of France's Groupe Du Louvre from U.S. investment company Starwood Capital Group.

State-owned Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Development Co. Ltd. will acquire 1,115 hotels owned, managed and operated by Groupe Du Louvre. The Paris-based company owns hotel brands that mostly operate within Europe, ranging from the five-star Royal Tulip to budget chain Kyriad and Campanile. Greenwich, Conn.-based Starwood bought the group for $3.2 billion in 2005.

The Shanghai-based hotel operator aims to tap into the European hotel market, which is expected to attract 8 million Chinese tourists a year by 2020, bringing in €2 billion ($2.3 billion) in annual revenue. Jin Jiang currently operates 893 hotels, mostly in mainland China, and plans to increase its footprint to 2,000 by 2017.