HNA has reached an agreement to purchase Inditex founder Amancio Ortega’s remaining shares in Spain’s NH Hoteles, making the Chinese travel group the hotel chain’s majority shareholder.
The group has told the Spanish stock market commission that the purchase of Ortega’s 5.5 per cent share will push HNA’s stake up to 24 per cent.
Ortega’s purchase of an initial 10 per cent stake in 2003 prevented another Spanish hotel chain, Hesperia, from making a hostile bid for the business specialist chain. He subsequently sold off 4.5 per cent in 2007.
Ortega, whose Inditex clothing empire includes brands such as Zara and Bershka, will receive 52.5 million euros (US$71.4 million) from the transaction.
NH Hoteles, which has been in the red, cut its losses to 10.3 million euros in the first nine months of 2013 and slashed its debts from just over one billion euros to 686 million euros.
