Exclusive | HNA’s founder calls fugitive Guo Wengui’s patronage claims ‘a pack of lies’

Chen Feng, the founder of one of China’s most aggressive global asset acquirers, said his HNA Group is a bystander in a smear campaign by people under the pressure of the Chinese government’s crackdown on corruption and financial malfeasance.

“If you choose to listen to a pack of lies by an internationally wanted fugitive,” whose credibility had already been damaged by the prosecution of his cohorts, “then there is a problem,” Chen said in an interview with the South China Morning Post in his first media response to Guo’s claims. “If you look at the business of HNA and understand its true nature, then you’ll see these claims are nothing but lies.”

The company, based in the Hainan provincial capital of Haikou, has expanded from its 1993 establishment with four aircraft to almost 2,000 planes under operation and management. In the process, it also went on a global buying spree, owning 1 trillion yuan (US$146 billion) of assets, including stakes in Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Deutsche Bank.

In an April interview with the Voice of America’s mandarin service, Guo alleged that HNA owed its success to patronage by the Communist Party, with senior cadres and their relatives remaining as undisclosed shareholders. A claim was specifically directed at Wang Qishan, who heads the party’s anti-graft campaign, saying that his nephew Yao Qing was a shareholder.

“That’s 1,000 per cent untrue,” Chen said.

Watch: A photo slideshow of Chen Feng