HNA Group Company Ltd, a diversified services provider, has acquired a majority stake in a Turkish maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) company to facilitate China's fourth-largest airline to penetrate the aviation networks in Europe, Asia and North Africa.
HNA's MRO division, Grand China Aviation Technik Ltd Co (GCA Technik), has taken a 60 percent stake of the company, a top manager told China Daily on Monday, in an agreement along with Bravia Capital, an advisory, structured financing and investment company that focuses on transportation projects in Europe and Asia.
"The acquisition is only the beginning of the company's expansion into a global MRO network, and our steps will be quickened," said Liu Qiang, general manger of marketing and sales department of GCA Technik.
Dang Jianping, president of GCA Technik, said earlier of the plans to buy the Turkish company: "MyTechnic is representative of our strategy to invest in global transportation hubs with the highest growth potential."
Based in Istanbul, MyTechnic is an aircraft MRO center located in Sabiha Gokcen International Airport, currently serving about 50 customers in 10 regions.
The company believes their market will consist of a total of 5,200 aircraft from nearly 500 potential customers.
Founded in 2010, GCA Technik has maintained, repaired or overhauled more than 200 aircraft with it's more than 2,400 employees.
The company has regional centers in Haikou, Beijing and Xi'an and bases in Taiyuan, Urumqi and Guangzhou. The purchase is the company's first overseas acquisition.
The move echoes a recovering MRO market globally and within China. According to an Aerostrategy forecast, global growth of the MRO market between 2004 and 2014 will be 5.6 percent, with the Asia-Pacific region increasing the fastest at 7.4 percent, Europe at 5.8 percent and North America at 4.3 percent.
Most of the leading MRO companies in China are joint ventures, including Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corp, Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co Ltd, and Taikoo Xiamen Aircraft Engineering Co Ltd.
As part of HNA's efforts to diversify its business portfolio, Li Lei, an aviation analyst with Civic Construction, said the purchase of the Turkish company merely serves as an attempt to set up new networks abroad but will not contribute as a source of cash for HNA's MRO division, which still views the domestic market as its core business.
"To be a competitive global player in the MRO field, one has to acquire leading and core technologies," Li said.