China's Hainan Airlines Holdings could see control of its shareholding change as a result of its ongoing restructuring programme, president Xu Jun told investors during an online discussion last week.
According to Reuters, Xu revealed during the course of the interaction that, contrary to what is publically known, the airline is not controlled by HNA Group but rather by Hainan’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) and its stake in Grand China Air Co Ltd.
“The company is currently communicating, negotiating and proofing its asset restructuring plan, and there is a possibility that the actual controller of the company could change,” Xu said.
For its part, HNA Group has continued to reorganize its own assets the latest of which has seen its Dutch investment vehicle - HNA Group (International) (Netherlands) One B.V. - sell off its stake in South Africa's Comair (South Africa) (CAW, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo). Neither the size of the stake nor the value were disclosed.
In related news, HNA Group held talks with Caribbean Airlines (BW, Port of Spain) last week wherein the two sides discussed cooperation in areas such as tourism, aircraft leasing and financing. They also discussed codesharing to further expand their respective network between China and the Caribbean.
