HNA Group Offloads South African Comair Shares in Further Asset Disposition
Xu Wei
DATE:  May 18 2018
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
HNA Group Offloads South African Comair Shares in Further Asset Disposition HNA Group Offloads South African Comair Shares in Further Asset Disposition

(Yicai Global) May 18 -- China's HNA Group Co. has unloaded all its shares in the South African airline Comair Ltd. via its subsidiary in the Netherlands, reported online news site The Paper. It represents further selloff by the group to pay back loans.

Comair received a formal notice from HNA about the disposal, it said in a filing to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange yesterday. However, it gave no further details about the transaction. HNA Group sells some of its assets to pay back loans amounting to USD94 million.

HNA Group held 29 million shares before the disposal, equivalent to a 6.2 percent stake, data from Bloomberg showed. These shares are worth about USD14 million based on the current market prices, Bloomberg said.

HNA Group first bought a stake in Comair in 2015. At that time, Comair Limited issued a filing to the exchange, saying that Thelo Aviation Consortium, a shareholder of the company, sold all its shares, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the HNA Group in the Netherlands paid USD13 million to acquire a 6.2 percent stake in the company.

Comair entered into a franchise agreement with British Airways in 1996 and was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1998. Comair became a franchise company for British Airways in 2007 yet again, with a validity period of 11 years.

Based on this validity period, Comair's franchise rights will expire this year. Some market rumors recently suggested HNA might take this opportunity to expand its equity in the airline, which would be conductive to the Chinese conglomerate's branding in the British Commonwealth countries. However, the disposition of its shares in Comair now puts an end to such rumors.

Editor: Mevlut Katik

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Keywords:   South Africa,Comair Limited,HNA GROUP