HNA Group’s fate hangs in the balance as coronavirus lockdowns scupper the Chinese asset buyer’s debt workout plan
- Hainan Airlines could be taken over and its aviation assets dispersed among three of Chinas biggest state-owned carriers, Bloomberg reported
- Executives at Hainan Airlines and its parent HNA Group declined, but posted a blog on HNA Group’s website showing the airline’s co-founder and chairman Chen Feng visiting flight and cabin crew
The fate of the HNA Group, one of the biggest global asset buyers to emerge from China in the past decade, hangs in the balance as its debt workout plan has been scuppered by a business slump caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
A seizure of Hainan Airlines, if true, would place the Haikou-based conglomerate – with 525.6 billion yuan (US$75 billion) in debt at the end of June 2019 – in peril as it is barely halfway through its debt workout.
HNA Group grew out of Hainan Airlines, which began in 1989 as a regional carrier flying between the provincial capital of Haikou with mainland China. The airline grew quickly, enabling the HNA Group to be established in 2000 around the aviation assets, which by that time had bought Shanxi Airlines, Chan An Airlines and China Xinhua Airlines.