海航计划让佳美在瑞士上市
Switzerland’s Gategroup announced on Tuesday that it was exploring a public offering of its shares just days after the country’s takeover watchdog censured its Chinese owner HNA Group for providing “untrue or incomplete” information when it acquired the air-services company. The disclosure came hours after HNA chief executive Adam Tan told a media gathering in Beijing that his company was looking at a 2018 listing of Gategroup, Bloomberg reported. Gategroup said in its statement that it was evaluating a potential return to public markets and considering the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich as its listing venue. It cited Mr Tan’s earlier comments, in which he also said he would consider selling overseas investments in property and other sectors. The company added that it could give no details on the proportion of shares which would be listed on the Swiss exchange, nor on the timing of the listing. The Swiss Takeover Board, citing several Financial Times articles, late last week said the original information the company provided in May 2016 when acquiring Gategroup for SFr1.4bn had been “untrue or incomplete”. Asked whether the Swiss takeover panel’s ruling last week would be a problem for a new listing, a SIX spokesman declined to comment. Hainan-based HNA, whose roots lie in running a domestic Chinese airline, took the Swiss aircraft-catering company private as part of its push into global aviation and logistics. The deal came amid a $40bn sprawling overseas acquisition binge over the past three years, which has also seen HNA emerge as the single biggest shareholder in Deutsche Bank and Hilton Worldwide. But questions about HNA’s true ownership continue to plague its prospects, and its aggressive financing techniques have also drawn investor concerns. Gategroup is one of the two Swiss aviation services assets owned by HNA — it acquired Swissport at the start of 2016. Swissport recently started providing short-term loans to companies linked to the HNA Group, raising concerns among investors about the intermingling of the Swiss airline services company’s funds with its Chinese parent. Analysts have flagged up issues around HNA’s continued access to affordable debt funding amid a broad crackdown on riskier lending in China. They pointed out that HNA recently paid a nearly 9 per cent yield to raise a 363-day bond — an incredibly high interest cost for such short-term debt. |