As HNA Group considers selling Radisson Hotel Group, Bloomberg reports that China’s state-owned Jin Jiang International is weighing a bid for the Minneapolis-based hotel company.
HNA Tourism Group had bought Carlson Hotels – comprising hotel brands Radisson, Park Plaza, Country Inns & Suites – for an undisclosed sum in 2016, before the latter’s recent rebrand into Radisson Hotel Group.
The debt-ridden Chinese conglomerate has been dumping assets globally, and its divestments snowballed to billions this year.
Bloomberg, quoting unnamed sources, said HNA could get at least US$2 billion from the Radisson sale, which is expected to attract other bidders.
Discussing HNA’s financial troubles in a recent interview with TTG Asia, Katerina Giannouka, Radisson Hotel Group’s head of Asia-Pacific, stressed that Radisson was self-financed and pursuing a five-year plan independent from the owning company’s contributions.
For potential bidder Jin Jiang, overseas expansion has been high on the agenda. It has been described by the CEO of Louvre Hotels Group, a company it acquired in recent years, as a “strategic, long-term player (that) does not want to exit”. Jin Jiang also owns 12.3 per cent of France’s Accor SA.
