CHINA. HNA Group is closing in on a deal to acquire airline services company gategroup after declaring its initial tender offer for gategroup shares to be successful.
As reported in April, HNA Group division HNA Aviation (Hong Kong) Air Catering Holding Co. made a swoop for gategroup in a deal valued at US$1.5 billion. Chinese authorities approved the move last month.
HNA Group said that up to 1 July, when the initial acceptance period in the tender offer expired, it had received acceptances for 61.76% of shares. With shares owned directly by gategroup are included this reached 63.6%.
HNA said it was “pleased about this interim result and remains confident that more shareholders of gategroup will recognise the benefits of accepting the offer and therefore tender their shares into the offer during the additional acceptance period”.
With the high level of acceptance, HNA declared that it was waiving the minimum acceptance rate of 67% and declared the offer to be successful.
An additional period of ten trading days for the subsequent acceptance of the offer will start on 8 July and runs until 21 July. The completion of the offer is expected to occur towards the end of Q3 or early in Q4 this year.
The deal represents another major consolidation in the aviation services industry. Both companies’ interests include highly successful travel retail activities. As reported, gategroup recently acquired Scandinavian travel retailer Inflight Service Group, boosting the Swiss company’s already strong presence in the inflight and wider travel retail and onboard sectors.
