HNA holds ‘candid’ discussions with creditors on liquidity woes

HNA Group Co. held a meeting with some creditor banks, including China’s biggest state-owned lenders, to discuss its liquidity difficulties and debt issues, the Chinese conglomerate said.

The March 11 discussions with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp., Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., Bank of China Ltd., Bank of Communications Co., Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. were “thorough, candid,” according to a statement on HNA’s Wechat account on Friday. The parties provided updates and spoke about existing issues, it said, without providing details.

HNA has realized it’s facing not just a crisis of debt and corporate-governance, but also of trust, the statement said, citing Executive Chairman Gu Gang at the meeting. Gu pledged to improve communication mechanisms with creditors, it said.