Plane fare

6 March 2018 By Aimee Donnellan Follow @aimeedonnellan

The former Chinese deal machine is listing up to 65 pct of Gategroup to help ease its liquidity crunch. The maker of in-flight meals has expanded since HNA paid $1.5 bln for it in 2016. Factor in an IPO discount, though, and HNA will do well to recoup its original investment.

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Airline catering company Gategroup, controlled by China’s HNA Group, is seeking an initial public offering, the Swiss company said on March 6.

The IPO is aiming to raise up to 350 million Swiss francs for the company, while enabling HNA to sell the majority of its holdings. After the offering, about 65 percent of the shares would be freely traded.

Gategroup said it would use the proceeds of the offering to buy the remaining shares of Servair from Air France-KLM and fund its pension plans.

In 2017, Gategroup’s revenue was 4.6 billion Swiss francs, EBITDA was 300 million Swiss francs, and net profit was 85.2 million.

HNA bought Gategroup in 2016 for $1.5 billion. The Chinese conglomerate plans to list the company which supplies food to airlines like Virgin Atlantic and Norwegian in either the first or second quarter of 2018.

HNA would retain three seats on Gategroup’s board, and HNA CEO Adam Tan will be chairman.

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