HNA Group to sell stake in Hong Kong firm to Blackstone for $894 mln

Tysan Holdings

10/03/2019 08:15

By Sijia Jiang
    HONG KONG, March 10 (Reuters) - China's HNA Group is selling
a controlling stake in its Hong Kong-listed construction firm to
Blackstone Group for HK$7.02 billion ($894.31 million),
according to a regulatory filing, the latest asset disposal by
the embattled Chinese conglomerate.
    Hong Kong International Construction Investment Management
Group  0687.HK  said in a filing late on Friday that Times
Holdings II Ltd, a company controlled by Blackstone, has agreed
to buy all the shares owned by HNA Group's finance arm HNA
Finance I, or 69.54 percent of the firm. 
    The purchase price represents HK$3 per share, a 14.5 percent
premium over Hong Kong International Construction's Friday
closing price of HK$2.62. Blackstone has also offered to
purchase the remainder of the shares in the market at the same
price for a maximum of HK$3.7 billion, in compliance with
exchange rules, though it does not intend to privatise the
company, according to the same filing. 
    Faced with soaring debts and China's crackdown on aggressive
dealmaking firms, HNA Group has been offloading its assets that
spans property to aviation. 
    Hong Kong International Construction, a property
construction and investment firm, last month sold its last land
parcel in Hong Kong  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1ZW2HG. 
    HNA is in active discussion to sell its budget airline Hong
Kong Express to Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways  0273.HK 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N20S06C, the companies said last week. 
    

($1 = 7.8496 Hong Kong dollars)

 (Reporting by Sijia Jiang; editing by Christian Schmollinger)
 ((Sijia.Jiang@thomsonreuters.com; +852 65313893;))