Hainan Airlines Buys Stake in Brazilian Carrier

China’s largest private airline, Hainan Airlines Co. Ltd., has completed the acquisition of a 23.7 percent stake in Brazil’s third largest airline Azul for a reported USD 450 million.

The deal, which was originally announced last November, is one of many overseas investments made recently by Hainan’s parent company HNA.

As part of the agreement, the two companies will be cooperating in a number of areas including marketing, new route development, cargo transportation and code sharing.

In a statement, HNA Group Vice Chairman and CEO characterised Azul as a reliable, long-term partner for HNA and made reference to his confidence in potential further expansion and capital investment in Latin America.

Notably, HNA also recently announced the future acquisition of a 13 percent stake in airline Virgin Australia as well as a share of Portuguese national airline TAP. Furthermore, July also saw the conglomerate reveal that its USD 1.5 billion offer for Swiss airline catering company gategroup had been successful.

Similarly, in the past few days Chinese privately-owned conglomerate Fosun has also revealed its first equity acquisition in Latin America with a buyout of Brazilian investment management firm Rio Bravo.

Both Fosun and HNA’s overseas investments can be seen within the context of the Chinese government’s encouragement in recent years of the nation’s companies to invest internationally as a means of opening up new markets.

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Sources: The Times of Indian Business , Yibada

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