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HNA in talks to buy Forbes

Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is in talks to buy a controlling stake in the owner of the publisher of Forbes magazine, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Hong Kong- based investor group Integrated Whale Media Investments ( IWM), which holds 95 percent of Forbes Media, is also in talks with another Chinese media company and is scouting for more potential buyers for most or all of its stake, said one of the sources, who declined to be identified as the talks are confidential.

Reuters was not able to confirm the names of the other possible bidders.

HNA, ranked No. 353 in the 2016 Fortune Global list of the world’s big- gest 500 companies, 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, and HNA didn’t respond to a Reuters request for comment on Tuesday.

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

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

HNA, which has more than $ 100 billion in assets, has been expanding out of its traditional business of avia- tion 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 company that runs the website of influential financial publication Caijing magazine, for an undisclosed sum, records with China’s State- run corporate register showed.

“HNA will continue to scout for good- quality domestic and international media assets,” the second source said.

“HNA wants to display publications owned or invested by it on its planes and in its hotels across the world.”

The media deals are taking place as China is using “soft power” to extend its global influence.

Last year, China Central Television, the country’s largest TV network, said it would launch a new global media platform to help re- brand China overseas.

Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding has also acquired or invested in a growing portfolio of media and content companies in the past few years.

It acquired Hong Kong’s flagship English- language newspaper the South China Morning Post and other media assets of SCMP Group for $ 266 million in late 2015.