China’s HNA bites into bigger Swiss role

Following its purchase of cargo and luggage handler Swissport International in July 2015 for Chinese conglomerate HNA Group has agreed to buy a second Swiss company, Gategroup Holding AG, the world’s second-largest airline catering company, for US$1.5 billion.
Gategroup, headquartered at Zurich Airport, is responsible for providing catering, hospitality, provisioning and logistics across the airline industry and during its growth has acquired such companies as Aero-Chef, SAS Service Partner, VARIG Kitchens, British Airways Kitchens and Iber-Swiss.
Established in 2000 as the parent company of China’s Hainan Airlines, Haikou-based HNA now operates or has shareholdings in over 12 airlines besides Hainan Airlines, including a 48% stake in France’s second-largest airline Aigle Azur and 23.7% of Azul Brazilian Airlines. It also owns 16 airports in China and has interests in cargo handling and logistics, real estate, retailing industry, financial services, tourism and shipbuilding.