Around 67,400 HNA creditors seek claims of $188bn – report

Around 67,400 creditors are seeking a total of CNY1.2 trillion yuan (USD188 billion) in claims from HNA Group, an anonymous source who attended an online creditors’ meeting for the bankrupt conglomerate on June 4 told Reuters. According to the source, Ren Qinghua, a former Hainan Yangpu Economic Development Zone official who the Hainan government appointed to head the HNA liquidation team in March 2020, said that the group had confirmed CNY405.7 billion (USD63.4 billion) in claims as valid and had rejected claims worth CNY353.5 billion (USD55.3 billion). A further CNY156.5 billion (USD24.5 billion) worth of claims are currently being assessed in a preliminary review, the insider added, and the remainder have yet to be investigated. Ren allegedly described HNA Group and its 321 related companies, which include its flagship business Hainan Airlines (HU, Haikou), as “seriously insolvent” and it remained to be seen whether strategic investors could be attracted in the short term. HNA Group declined to verify the comments to the news agency. Company restructuring tends to last for six months under Chinese law, but this can be extended for a further three months. If the targets in the process that have been agreed with regulators and creditors are still not met, the company is broken up and its assets liquidated.