HNA president Wang Jian falls to death in France

Wang Jian, co-chairman of the Chinese conglomerate HNA, died during a business trip to France on July 3 in what the local police said was an accidental fall of one. wall posing for a photo.

Considered as the architect of a $ 50 billion US acquisition frenzy, the company HNA has accumulated badets ranging from an equity stake in Deutsche Bank to foreign properties of foreground. Under pressure from Beijing, HNA has since sold many of these badets to reduce debt.

He was in charge of HNA's strategy and ran the day-to-day operations, according to sources familiar with the matter. His death complicates the troubled conglomerate's efforts to restructure and repay its loans, and it could increase the pressure on HNA to reveal more about its opaque property often criticized

Wang fell 15 meters from a wall in the village of Bonnieux, near Avignon, a scenic area popular with tourists, told Reuters Lieutenant-Colonel Hubert Meriaux of the gendarmerie of Vaucluse.
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"He was standing on the edge of a steep drop to force his family to take a picture of himself and fell," he said.

Wang held a 15 percent stake in HNA. The group is controlled by a New York-based foundation and a China-based charity that together hold 52 percent of HNA's shares. Chen also holds a 15 percent stake.

Shareholders have promised that in case of departing the company or death, they would spend their stakes in the New York charity fund, according to a document seen by Reuters.

A financial services conglomerate that views Hainan Airlines Co. as its main badet, HNA's recent sales include holdings in companies such as Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., Park Hotels & Resorts. and the Spanish NH Hotels

Wang's death could not come at a worse time, said Brock Silvers, founder and managing director of Kaiyuan Capital, a Shanghai-based investment consulting firm

. He told employees earlier this year that the company's difficulties were the result of a "major conspiracy" against the ruling Communist Party. and President Xi Jinping by foreign and domestic "reactionary forces", according to an internally distributed email.

However, the fighting group appears to have recently obtained a stay, at a meeting held by the Chinese central bank, lenders were asked to "support" HNA bonds, Bloomberg and Financial Times reported last month.

HNA stayed in sales mode: last month, Hainan The company announced that it would unlock its stake in the Brazilian airline Azul SA for a value of about $ US324 million.

And this week, HNA canceled its $ 280 million financing offer to buy out Australia's Automotive Holdings Group Ltd.

China's crackdown on aggressive overseas transactions also allowed Dalian Wanda Group to unload billions of dollars of badets last year, while Anbang Insurance Group has been taken over by the government this year.

Wang graduated from the Civil Aviation University of China with a degree in Air Management and holds an MBA from the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands.

"HNA Group offers its deepest condolences The board of directors and the HNA management team said in a statement:" Together we mourn the loss of a leader and d & # 39; an exceptionally talented model, whose vision and values ​​will continue to be a beacon. for all those who have had the chance to know him, as well as for others whose lives he has touched by his work and philanthropy.

Social media apparently censored Wang's death on the tightly controlled Internet of China news was announced by the group. "HNA Wang Jian died" briefly ranked 11th on Twitter as the Weibo news page, but was quickly away from the top 50.

"It's really shocking news for us", has declared an employee working in finance at HNA, declining to give his name.

"Everyone in the office talks about it, but we do not know what impact it will have on the management of the company."