HNA sale sets stage for a great escape

Tysan Holdings

13/02/2018 03:02

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions 
expressed are his own.) 
    By Quentin Webb 
    HONG KONG, Feb 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Selling half a 
marquee Hong Kong project for $2 bln should help offset a 
liquidity crunch. Plenty of other foreign assets could be sold 
without disrupting the Chinese outfit's core businesses. Since 
deals were largely debt-funded, HNA needs good prices to make a 
difference. 
 
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    CONTEXT NEWS 
    - A unit of HNA Group, the Chinese conglomerate, said on 
Feb. 13 that funds it manages would sell two parcels of land in 
Hong Kong to Henderson Land Development for HK$16.0 billion ($2 
billion). 
    - The unit, Hong Kong International Construction Investment 
Management, said the sale to the local developer would close the 
following day. HNA Group owns 74.7 percent of HKICIM, according 
to Thomson Reuters Eikon. 
    - HKICIM owns 12.1 percent and 16.6 percent of the two sites 
via stakes in two Cayman Islands-based funds. A subsidiary of 
HNA Holding Group, the HNA vehicle that originally bought the 
land for $14.2 billion, owns the rest. 
    - In the first half of 2017, HKICIM itself bought two other 
adjacent sites in Kai Tak, an area of Kowloon East that once 
housed Hong Kong's airport, for HK$13 billion. 
    - Shares in HKICIM, which had a market value of about HK$7.2 
billion as of the previous close, rose 14.7 percent in early 
trading on Feb. 13. 
    - For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can 
click on  WEBB/   
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    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
HNA's hard job: put the M&A machine into reverse     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1P72RO 
HNA may have to check out of some big deals     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1OI1BO 
HKICIM statement    http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/SEHK/2018/0213/LTN20180213023.pdf 
HNA unit to sell two Hong Kong sites to Henderson Land for $2 
bln     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1Q303B 
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> 
 (Editing by Pete Sweeney and Katrina Hamlin) 
 ((quentin.webb@thomsonreuters.com;)(Reuters 
Messaging:)(quentin.webb.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: HKICIM GROUP HNA/BREAKINGVIEWS