HNA Group, the debt-ridden Chinese conglomerate based in Haikou, South China's Hainan Province, has stepped up efforts to sell its non-core assets as the troubled group seeks to address its liquidity issues from its overseas buying spree.
The objective behind the decision is to optimize its asset structure and improve the efficiency of asset allocation, according to a note HNA sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.
HNA also confirmed that the latest building sold by the group was a building located at 850 Third Avenue in Manhattan, near Trump Tower.
The sale allegedly was made at a loss for HNA but it added more than $20 billion to the conglomerate's liquidity, according to a report by Bloomberg on Wednesday.
HNA has been facing chronic liquidity challenges and a soaring debt burden that was caused by its binge purchases with borrowed money, including large overseas stakes in companies including Deutsche Bank and Hilton Worldwide Holdings.
According to a report by news site thepaper.cn on Wednesday, the CEO of HNA Group admitted that the conglomerate has been expanding too fast and has underestimated the effects of changes in the market environment, which led to the unexpected debt levels and liquidity issues it is currently faced with.
In response to its current pressure, HNA has been selling non-core assets and tilting its focus back to its core aviation business since June 2018, the report said.
A report by Reuters on Wednesday also showed that by the middle of 2018, HNA had sold a list of holdings with a total value of almost $100 billion.
However, in a recent meeting in Beijing, Chen said that by the end of 2018, HNA had already liquidated assets totaling 300 billion yuan ($44 billion), thepaper.cn reported.
