DEALS
Zhong Lun Assists Investor Hainan Holdings in Successful Reorganization of HNA Group’s Airport Arm
Zhong Lun Assists Investor Hainan Holdings in Successful Reorganization of HNA Group’s Airport Arm
On December 24, 2021, to bring in a strategic investor for the airport arm of HNA Group, the actual control over the operation and management of the airport arm was officially handed over to the strategic investor Hainan Development Holdings Co., Ltd., consummating the airport arm’s reorganization.
Zhong Lun assisted Hainan Development Holdings Co., Ltd. in successfully completing its investment in the reorganization, representing yet another significant milestone Zhong Lun’s streak of success in providing reorganization/restructuring services for large group companies.
The assets to be restructured in the project were subject to different bankruptcy proceedings, namely the coordinated reorganization proceedings for the public sector and substantive consolidation of the reorganization proceedings for the private sector. Therefore, the investment entailed cutting-edge and complex bankruptcy issues such as introducing investors in the context of multi-reorganizations, restructuring assets and debts in substantive consolidation of reorganization proceedings, changing the actual controller of a listed company and rectifying issues including embezzlement and illegal guarantees of the listed company, which made the design of the investment plan extremely difficult. This reorganization is one of the most intricate and influential bankruptcy reorganization cases in China.
Zhong Lun has provided the investor with whole-process legal services, including design of investment plan, negotiation and conclusion of the reorganization investment agreements and reorganization plan, formulation of risk control plans, etc., assisting the investor in successfully achieving its investment objectives. The firm assisted the investor in obtaining all assets of the airport arm in one go, which maximized the value of the restructured assets, and at the same time managed to help the investor effectively contain all potential/contingent risks involved in the investment. Such measures were implemented concurrently to secure the investor’s investment objectives without losing focus on risk control. This reorganization achieved win-win results for both the investor and the creditors and has been widely recognized by the market.
The Zhong Lun team for this project was led by partner Bing WANG and supported by associates Junlin PU, Beibei ZHANG, Chonglin WANG, Zhijian DONG, Yujian ZENG, Mingyi FAN, Sylvia CHEN, Ziyu ZENG, etc.
