HNA Group finds strategic investors for airline, airport businesses as conglomerate takes steps to emerge from bankruptcy
- Liaoning Fangda will be the strategic investor for the group’s flagship HNA Airlines
- Hainan Development Holdings will invest in HNA Infrastructure
The administrators of HNA Group’s debt restructuring programme have decided on strategic investors for the Chinese conglomerate’s airline and airport businesses.
Liaoning Fangda Group Industrial will be the strategic investor for HNA’s flagship airline business while Hainan Development Holdings will invest in its airport business, according to exchange filings on Sunday by Hainan Airlines Holding and HNA Infrastructure Investment Group.
In March, Hainan Airlines posted an annual loss of 64 billion yuan (US$9.9 billion) for 2020, the biggest-ever by a listed Chinese company.
A court in Hainan, China, gave the go-ahead in March for a merger of 321 firms related to HNA to enable it to potentially emerge from bankruptcy after the global acquisition spree brought it to its knees.
Hainan Airlines said its new strategic investor Liaoning Fangda may become the controlling shareholder of the conglomerate’s aviation business after the investment. HNA Infrastructure said that Hainan Development may become its controlling shareholder after the investment.
Liaoning Fangda is a conglomerate featuring carbon, steel and pharmaceutical sectors, with listed units such as Fangda Carbon New Material, Northeastern Pharmaceutical Group and Fangda Special Steel Technology.
Hainan Airlines will hold its second creditors’ meeting to review the restructuring plan on September 27, and HNA Infrastructure’s creditors’ meeting will be convened the next day, according to statements to the exchange.
Additional reporting by SCMP Reporter