Turkish Airlines\u00a0is interested in\u00a0HNA Group Co.\u2019s minority stake in\u00a0Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd.\u00a0as it seeks growth in the Asia-Pacific region, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s national flag-carrier is among companies looking at HNA\u2019s 20% stake in the Australian airline, said the people, asking not to be named because the discussions are private. Deliberations are preliminary and may not result in a deal, the people said.<\/p>\n
Reports that it will acquire HNA\u2019s 20% stake in Virgin Australia “do not reflect the truth,” Turkish Airlines said in a statement Thursday. “We share our objectives of developing our business partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region with our stakeholders.” A representative for HNA Group declined to comment.<\/p>\n
The troubled Chinese conglomerate was open to offers for its stake in Virgin Australia as part of efforts to cut debt, Bloomberg\u00a0reported\u00a0in August last year. Singapore Airlines Ltd. and\u00a0Nanshan Capital, which each\u00a0control\u00a0about a fifth of Virgin\u2019s shares, were among the companies weighing a bid, people familiar with the matter said at the time.<\/p>\n
Virgin Australia closed 3% lower at 16 Australian cents in Sydney, valuing the airline at A$1.35 billion ($925 million). Turkish Airlines fell as much as 2% and traded 0.9% lower at 12.35 liras as of 11:58 a.m. in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
HNA has about dozen airlines in its portfolio including\u00a0Hainan Airlines Holding Co. Ltd.,\u00a0Hong Kong Airlines Ltd.,\u00a0Lucky Air Co. Ltd.\u00a0and\u00a0Tianjin Airlines.<\/p>\n
The Chinese firm is selling assets after racking up one of the nation\u2019s biggest corporate debt loads in a global acquisition spree. It also considered selling its majority stake in oil-storage and logistics business HG Storage International Ltd. as well as container-leasing unit Seaco, tech-outsourcing arm Pactera Technology International Ltd. and aircraft-maintenance firm SR Technics, Bloomberg News has reported.<\/p>\n
Turkish Airlines has been evaluating\u00a0investments\u00a0in other carriers in a departure from concentrating on growth at its huge Istanbul hub as it looks to safeguard expansion as Mideast and European economies falter and a rise in protectionism weighs on global cargo flows. The company has a longstanding holiday venture, SunExpress, with Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and set up a\u00a0joint venture\u00a0in Albania last year.<\/p>\n
The airline plans to boost its fleet to 474 planes by 2023 including 25 Boeing 787-9s, according to its website. It took delivery of the first Dreamliner in June as part of a\u00a0deal\u00a0for 40 of the jets.<\/p>\n
In another development, Turkish Air on Thursday announced a so-called code-share partnership with\u00a0Bangkok Airways PCL. The deal will allow Turkish to sell tickets on Bangkok Air flights as if they were its own, opening up more destinations in Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkish Airlines\u00a0is interested in\u00a0HNA Group Co.\u2019s minority stake in\u00a0Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd.\u00a0as it seeks growth in the Asia-Pacific region, according to people familiar with the matter. Turkey\u2019s national flag-carrier is among companies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[46,48,57,68,76,77,82,86,87,90,96,99,103,107,109,111,113,137,139,146,148,160,174,183,184,201,202,209,222,230,232,233,244,246,249,256,262,263,267,277,279,280,285,288],"class_list":["post-3965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-aramco","tag-athens","tag-baroudi","tag-carbon","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-co2","tag-cyprus","tag-decarbonising","tag-democracy","tag-doha","tag-eastmed","tag-egypt","tag-embargo","tag-emissions","tag-energy","tag-energy-peace","tag-gas","tag-gazprom","tag-greece","tag-greenenergy","tag-international-maritime-disputes","tag-lebanon","tag-maritime-boundaries-east-mediterranean","tag-maritime-disputes","tag-offshore","tag-oil","tag-opec","tag-pollution","tag-poverty-alleviation","tag-putin","tag-qatar","tag-rosneft","tag-roudi","tag-russia","tag-saudi","tag-solar","tag-solar-power","tag-straddling-hydrocarbons-reserves","tag-total","tag-trump","tag-turkey","tag-unclos","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}