Cash-rich Hong Kong developers, distressed debt and private credit funds are lining up to offer financing to HNA, the indebted Chinese conglomerate, as it seeks to raise cash, bankers and property investors say.

In recent weeks HNA has entered talks with several developers led by Sun Hung Kai Properties and a number of other investors to secure $1.5bn to $2bn in loans that would be collateralised by its land holdings at the site of Hong Kong’s former airport, Kai Tak, which is being remodelled as a luxury residential property development.

HNA hopes to be able to borrow cheaply due to the high value of the Kai Tak site and is seeking an interest rate as low as 8 per cent, far below what would be considered a market level, the people added. If HNA were to default, any lender would then be in a position to develop the property itself.