HNA IN TALKS TO BUY KEY STAKE IN FORBES
China firm is said to be negotiating deal worth at least US$400m
HONG KONG
ACQUISITIVE Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is in talks to buy a controlling stake in the owner of the publisher of Forbes magazine, said two sources with knowledge of the matter.
Integrated Whale Media Investments (IWM), which held 95 per cent of Forbes Media, was also in talks with another Chinese media firm and was scouting for more potential buyers for most or all of its stake, said one of the sources.
HNA, ranked 353rd in the 2016 Fortune Global list of the world’s Ltd and Amperex Technology Ltd.
Analysis from Samsung and independent researchers found no other problems in the Note 7 devices except the batteries, raising speculation that Samsung would recoup some of its losses by selling biggest 500 companies, had been in discussions for a couple of weeks with IWM for a deal worth at least US$400 million (RM1.77 billion), said the source.
The move comes three years after the Forbes family, which founded the American financial magazine 100 years ago, gave up its controlling stake in Forbes Media to IWM.
That transaction valued the Forbes company at US$475 million, said a source.
HNA, which has more than US$100 billion in assets, has been on an acquisition spree expanding out of its traditional business of aviation and logistics into financial, media and cultural sectors.
Late last year, HNA Capital, the group’s financial arm, bought an 80 per cent 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 refurbished Note 7s.
A person familiar with the matter said in January that the group was considering the possibility of selling refurbished versions of the device or reusing some parts.
Samsung’s announcement that state-run corporate register showed.
“Going forward, HNA will continue to scout for good-quality domestic and international media assets,” said the second source. “HNA wants to display publications owned or invested by it on its planes, in its hotels across the world.”
The media deals are taking place at a time when Beijing is flexing its “soft power” muscles 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.
Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has also acquired in a growing portfolio of media and content firms in the past few years. It snapped up Hong Kong’s flagship English-language newspaper the South China Morning Post and other media assets of SCMP Group Ltd for US$266 million in late 2015. Reuters revamped Note 7s will go back on sale, however, surprised some with the timing — just days before it launches its new S8 smartphone today in the United States, its first new premium phone since the debacle last year. Reuters