HONG KONG - CWT International Ltd, a unit of China’s indebted HNA Group Co Ltd, said on Tuesday it defaulted on a HK$1.4 billion loan, and that it has less than 24 hours to pay funds due or lose assets pledged as collateral.
Among assets pledged is wholly owned CWT Pte Ltd, a holding firm for HNA’s commodity marketing, engineering, finance and logistics services. Other assets pledged include properties in Britain and the United States and golf courses in China. Aviation-to-financial services conglomerate HNA bought the Singapore-based firm for $1 billion in December 2017 via wholly owned subsidiary HNA Belt and Road Investments Singapore. It then merged the firm with one of its Hong Kong-listed units and named the resulting entity CWT International.
The group said it remains confident in the financial and business operations of CWT and does not anticipate the default will result in any disruption to business or wider impact on CWT or elsewhere in the group.