For HNA, Bankruptcy Is the Best Bad Option
The conglomerate had been successfully selling down and unwinding assets, but insolvency is the most efficient outcome for everyone involved.
A surprisingly good surprise.
Photographer: Giulia Marchi/BloombergDebt-ridden HNA Group Co., which splashed out over $40 billion on stakes in high-profile companies across the world, has been unwinding and selling down its assets fairly quickly. It didn’t even have to accept bargain-basement prices. The firm has been under the government’s watch for over a year. Why, then, is it going into bankruptcy?
In a statement Friday, the airlines-to-insurance conglomerate said it had received a court notice that creditors had filed a petition for its bankruptcy and reorganization, stating that HNA couldn’t “pay off the debts due and obviously lacked solvency, but still had reorganization value.”