HNA Group to Sell Sydney Office Building for USD164 Million Amid Liquidity Crisis
Chen Shanshan
DATE:  Jan 29 2018
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
HNA Group to Sell Sydney Office Building for USD164 Million Amid Liquidity Crisis HNA Group to Sell Sydney Office Building for USD164 Million Amid Liquidity Crisis

(Yicai Global) Jan. 29 -- Cash-strapped Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. will sell off a USD165 million office building in Sydney, Australia, as part of efforts to raise funds to ease debt pressure.

The sale of the 1,992 square-meter One York Building could be the first in a wave of overseas asset divestments following Wall Street Journal reports that the firm is trying to find buyers for offices in New York, London and San Francisco as well as its resorts in French Polynesia. HNA is also exploring the sale of partial shares in Spanish NH Hotel Group SA, Bloomberg reported. 

HNA Group acquired the Australian property for AUD117 million in January 2012, and its sale will generate AUD88 million in profit. Around 30 companies use office space in the building.

The Haikou-based group, whose business portfolio includes Hainan Airlines and almost 10 percent of Deutsche Bank, is having financing trouble after a series of overseas mergers and acquisitions in recent years. HNA Group has participated in at least 40 cross-border M&As since 2010, while its total liabilities have hit CNY250 billion (USD39.6 billion), incomplete data show.

The company is also in talks with major property developers Sunac China Holdings Ltd. and Country Garden Holdings Co. over the divestment of some CNY2 billion (USD313 million) in land assets in China's southern Hainan province, Jiemian News reported on Jan. 25.

Chairman Chen Feng admitted in a Jan. 18 interview with Reuters that the group has liquidity problems. It began selling off properties last year, almost doubling revenue at real estate arm Hainan HNA Infrastructure Investment Group Co. to CNY5.5 billion in the first half of 2017, from a year earlier.

Seven of the group's 17 listed companies, including HNA Infrastructure, have suspended stock trading in the last two months. HNA Group has repeatedly stressed that the halts have nothing to do with its financial problems.

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Keywords:   HNA GROUP,Sydney,Debt,NH Hotel Group