HNA ‘in talks’ to gain control of Forbes

HONG KONG — Acquisitive Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is in talks to buy a controlling stake in the owner of Forbes magazine’s publisher, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Hong Kong-based Integrated Whale Media Investments — which holds a 95 percent stake in Forbes Media — is also in talks with another Chinese media firm and is scouting for more potential buyers for most or all of its stake, said one of the sources.

HNA — which ranked 353rd in the 2016 Fortune 500 — has been in discussions for a couple of weeks with IWM for a deal worth at least $400 million, said the source.

IWM and Forbes Media declined to comment, while HNA didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The move comes three years after the Forbes family, which founded the financial magazine 100 years ago, sold its controlling stake in Forbes Media to IWM.

That transaction valued the Forbes company at $475 million, a source familiar with the transaction said.

HNA, which has more than $100 billion in assets, has been on an acquisition spree, expanding out of its traditional business of aviation and logistics into the financial, media and cultural sectors.

Late last year, HNA Capital, the group’s financial arm, bought an 80 percent stake in Beijing Lianban Caixun Cultural Media — a media firm that runs the website of influential financial publication Caijing magazine — for an undisclosed sum, records with China’s corporate register showed.

“Going forward, HNA will continue to scout for goodquality domestic and international media assets,” the second source said. “HNA wants to display publications owned or invested by it on its planes, in its hotels.”