China's investment firm CITIC has stepped in with a lifesaving loan for troubled HNA Group. The deal gives the conglomerate some breathing space.
HNA Group announced an agreement with Citic Bank in Beijing that provides the firm with a cash injection. Details of the agreement were posted on its website (in Chinese).
Citic Bank President Sun Deshun said his bank had long enjoyed a good relationship with HNA Group. Sun went on to say the bank was very confident about HNA’s prospects, and believed the companies could build a long-term strategic partnership.
Breathing Space for HNA
The deal gives the cash-strapped Chinese conglomerate some breathing space in its hunt for liquidity. The largest shareholder of Deutsche Bank recently tapped into its 9.9 percent holding of the German lender trimming it to 9.2 percent, after earlier denying it would touch the stake.
The investor, headed by chairman Chen Feng, accumulated the share 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.
