HNA Group wants to sell its $1.4 billion stake in the Hilton spinoff Park Hotels & Resorts Inc.
The Chinese firm bought a quarter of Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. last year, along with the spinoff companies Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. and Park Hotels, for about $6.5 billion from Blackstone Group, and its stakes are now valued at more than $9 billion, according to Bloomberg. The sale could include some or all of the 53.7 million shares HNA has.
Park Hotels’ properties includes New York’s Hilton Midtown and the Hilton San Francisco Union Square.
The airline operator is aggressively trying to repay its debts following the billions it spent buying stakes in entities such as Deutsche Bank AG and New York skyscrapers. The company is putting $4 billion in U.S. properties on the market, including the office tower at 245 Park Avenue that it bought for $2.2 billion last year, and it recently sold 1180 Sixth Avenue to Northwood Investors for $305 million. The company has put its 29 percent stake in the Spanish hospitality company NH Hotel Group SA up for sale as well, and its sales strategy has been confusing to some investors.
The Real Deal recently took an in-depth look at the rise and fall of HNA and whether it will meet the same fate as Anbang, which the Chinese government recently took over. [Bloomberg] – Eddie Small