HNA Group's terrible year set to continue into 2019

© Piotr Trojanowski

FlightGlobal has published an excellent examination of HNA Group, the struggling Chinese behemoth. It sums up the “annus horribilis” it has had this year, from its problems meeting interest payments on debt, to attempts to sell off several assets. It sold its stake in Azul, losing $6m in the process; it tried to transfer some stakes to its Hainan Airlines subsidiary, but that fell through last month. While it has identified more stakes to sell, one reported to be on the list  – its share in aircraft leasing business Avolon – seems an unlikely choice. The share is held by HNA’s own leasing arm, Bohai Leasing, and HNA was thought to want to hold on to its aircraft leasing business. However, Bohai has offloaded 30% to Orix Aviation. It’s a good article outlining what has happened (so far) this year at the mysterious Chinese group.