The Mysterious Chinese Company Worrying the World

For a company regularly in the news, China’s HNA Group Co. remains shrouded in mystery. American government officials are seeking more information about the conglomerate’s ownership, the Chinese government has been asking questions and the European Central Bank is considering a review of its own. Once a little-known airline operator, HNA took on billions of dollars in debt as it made more than $40 billion of acquisitions over six continents since the start of 2016. With interests in tourism, logistics and financial services, it’s now the biggest shareholder of such well-known names as Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG. It’s also facing mounting costs to finance its spending habits.

In part because it’s trying to buy a stake in SkyBridge Capital, the hedge-fund firm of Anthony Scaramucci, who was briefly President Donald Trump’s communications director. The proposed transaction has been delayed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, which vets sales of American assets to foreign buyers to protect national security. HNA is also being sued as part of the U.S. bankruptcy of a travel company it invested in. And a U.S. technology firm is suing HNA for allegedly providing false and inconsistent information about its ownership to CFIUS that caused a takeover deal to collapse. HNA says the lawsuit is baseless.