China's HNA group to continue buying spree

The chairman of HNA group, the acquisitive Chinese conglomerate, is looking to do more deals because he is confident about the growth of tourism in spite of the country’s economic slowdown. “Of course!” Chen Feng said when asked in an interview with the Financial Times whether mergers and acquisitions will continue. HNA owns Hainan Airlines, China’s fourth-largest airline. This year, in a flurry of dealmaking, it has unveiled transactions to buy Ingram Micro, a US information technology group, Carlson Hotels, the US owner of the Radisson brand, and a 13 per cent stake in Virgin Australia, the Australian airline. HNA’s deals have helped boost Chinese M&A to a record $121.1bn in the first six months of 2016 — a record for a single year.