In, out, shake it all about. No one has ever performed the Hokey Cokey — a kid’s party dance in some anglophone countries — on the scale of HNA. In its latest flash sale, the conglomerate from China is disposing of a controlling stake in Hong Kong-listed construction company HKICIM to private equity group Blackstone. A price of HK$7bn ($891m) shows this is no fire sale.
HNA grew fast through acquisition in China’s recent laissez faire phase. Tighter party control of credit and corporate strategy has forced the group to retrench. Shrinking to lower its debt profile will not bring it closer to a raison d’être.
The company, once backed by George Soros, is offloading assets worth tens of billions of dollars. In January it sold a building next to Donald Trump’s New York residence at a loss of $41m.