HNA Group previously denied it wants out of the German lender. Signs are mounting that the stake may not be sacrosanct, as the Chinese investor grapples with its debt load.
The heavily-indebted Chinese conglomerate has been hustling for months to raise cash to service its massive burden. It has sold commercial property in Sydney to private equity firm Blackstone, and is reportedly in talks with Hong Kong real estate developers to secure collateralized loans, as finews.asia previously reported.
Until now, HNA shareholding in Deutsche Bank was off-limits. This might be about to change: HNA's 9.9 percent stake slipped to 9.2 percent, according to several news reports citing regulatory filings.
Desperate for Cash
A spokesman for HNA said the investor intends to remain a long-term major shareholder of the German lender, and that the trimmed stake was a technicality «in relation to the long-term adaptation in the financing structure of the Deutsche Bank holdings.»
The investor, headed by chairman Chen Feng, built up the stake with the help of complex derivative transactions last year in a deal midwifed by UBS. Since then, HNA has even tapped into the pockets of its 400,000 employees with an opaque in-house investment product to raise money.
