Fosun, JD.com Among Suitors for HNA Assets

Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group and a unit of JD.com are among the potential suitors that are mulling an investment in distressed HNA Group, as per people familiar with the matter. Further, Ping An Insurance Group Co., Juneyao Airlines Co. and Air China Ltd. are also said to be analyzing HNA’s assets. This comes after HNA was brought to its knees on the back of a liquidity crunch, which was driven by a spate of acquisitions of trophy assets totaling $40bn that led to a massive debt pile of $86bn by end-2017. The company has since been placed under government control and undergoing a reorganization. Among HNA’s assets are airlines, airports and retail assets in China. While Juneyao Air, a privately owned airline based in Shanghai revealed plans of investing CNY 5bn ($770mn) in a JV that will in turn buy airline assets, it did not mention whom it will be purchasing the assets from. However, Caixin cited unidentified sources in stating that HNA’s airline assets are indeed the target.