China's HNA taps Goldman for planned Pactera U.S. IPO - sources

By Kane Wu and Julie Zhu

HONG KONG (Reuters) - HNA Group, the Chinese airline-to-banking conglomerate, has tapped investment bank Goldman Sachs to list Pactera, the Beijing-based IT outsourcing firm it bought from private equity firm Blackstone, sources familiar with the matter said.

The mandate for the U.S. initial public offering of Pactera, bought for $675 million in cash last year, is not yet official, the sources said, but the listing could come early next year.

News of the appointment of Goldman Sachs, a Wall Street stalwart, is a boost for HNA, even without a formal mandate. The sprawling conglomerate has seen its banking relationships come under scrutiny in recent weeks, as Beijing reins in what it sees as excessively splashy deals by China's top dealmakers.

One of the sources said Pactera could see a $200 million pre-IPO funding round close in the third quarter, adding Goldman bankers had spoken to Chinese institutional investors. Some global private equity firms could also be part of that, particularly those that lost out to Blackstone when it bought the business in 2014, the source said.

Goldman advised HNA on the acquisition of Pactera.

Pactera and HNA did not respond to requests for comment. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

(Reporting by Kane Wu and Julie Zhu in HONG KONG; Editing by Clara Ferreira Marques and Muralikumar Anantharaman)