The Borneo Post

US tells China’s HNA to sell stake in NYC building near Trump Tower

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HONG KONG: The US government has ordered Chinese conglomera­te HNA Group Co Ltd to sell its majority stake in a Manhattan building whose tenants include a police precinct tasked with protecting Trump Tower, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews foreign investment­s to weigh whether they present national security concerns, informed HNA several months ago that it had to divest itself of its holding in the building, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

CFIUS however did not explain to the aviation-to- financial services conglomera­te why it had to sell the property, according to the report.

At the behest of CFIUS, HNA set up a blind trust and transferre­d its stake in the building to the trust that has its own board of directors, which have a fiduciary duty to the trust, not to HNA, the report said.

HNA is now in talks with potential buyers interested in the building to abide by the CFIUS order, though it was not given a deadline to sell, the report added.

CFIUS is an interagenc­y US government body whose chair is the Secretary of the US Treasury Department. Asked on Saturday about the Journal report, a Treasury Department spokesman declined to comment, saying the department does not comment on specific CFIUS cases.

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