Financial pressure: Debt-laden HNA Group slides in bond market this week

Debt-laden HNA Group slid in the bond market this week on deepening signs that the Chinese conglomerate is struggling with its ability to honour obligations.
 

The company is already grappling with soaring borrowing costs that are pushing up its debt refinancing bills just as bond maturities are set to jump later this year. Among the declines, an HNA bond slid to a record low of 94 yuan, a security of HNA’s Hainan Airlines Holding fell to its lowest ever at 91 yuan, and a note from HNA Capital Group dropped to a four-year low of 100 yuan.
 

HNA is facing mounting financial pressure after the group spent tens of billions dollars on a debt-fuelled acquisition spree. HNA’s debts surged last year as financing costs more than doubled, according to the group’s latest half-year financial report. Since then, investor concerns about the conglomerate’s finances have increased, driving its borrowing costs higher.
 

HNA agreed to sell a Sydney office building to Blackstone Group, according to people familiar with the matter on Friday, in what could be the acquisitive conglomerate’s first-ever disposal of an overseas property as it struggles with mounting debts.
 

A creditor of an HNA unit found that the company put up some shares as collateral for multiple loans, resulting in a temporary freeze of related bank accounts, according to people with knowledge of the matter.