High Stakes: How HNA Group comes back from the brink

A photo with the US President or British Prime Minister is rare. But not as uncommon as being photographed next to Chinese President Xi Jinping, especially if you don’t happen to be a senior member of his administration or foreign head of state. Chen Feng has such a photo.

Chen is the co-founder and chairman of HNA Group, which is the fourth-largest airline group in mainland China, and which owns the world’s third-largest aircraft leasing company, although the leasing portfolio consumed a fraction of HNA’s $50 billion acquisition spree last decade. Assets have been sold but debt remains high and the group is effectively under the watch of a state-owned bank.

Chen’s photo with Xi is less an embarrassment and more an indication: despite technically being considered a private group, HNA’s business activity planted the flag overseas and sometimes helped the state achieve strategic goals. Indeed, China did not rein in HNA until well after its debt problem was known.