Shares in listed subsidiaries of China’s troubled HNA Group, once the driving force behind a wave of overseas Chinese dealmaking, fell sharply after several of them revealed that billions of dollars in funds had been misused.
The disclosures were the latest ugly twist in the collapse of the conglomerate, originally a domestic airline operator that grew rapidly thanks to a debt-fuelled dealmaking binge where it spent more than $40bn, including on stakes in Deutsche Bank and hotel operator Hilton International.
In a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange this weekend, Hainan Airlines Holding Co said that “self-investigations” revealed billions of dollars of company funds had been used for non-business purposes.