China’s HNA Group vies with PE firm Kelso for GE SeaCo: report

China's HNA Group has emerged as a front-runner to buy GE SeaCo, the container leasing business owned by General Electric and its partner SeaCo in a joint venture, the Financial Times today reported citing people familiar with the matter.

HNA will now be pitted with New York-based private equity group Kelso & Co for acquiring GE SeaCo, which could fetch $2.5 billion to $3 billion including debt.

The paper also said that while HNA was now the leading bidder, people cautioned that GE was still reviewing its options and that no announcement was imminent and GE could yet choose to hold onto the business.

Headquartered in Barbados, GE SeaCo was founded in 1998 by Sea Containers Ltd and General Electric Capital Corporation, the financing arm of GE. Sea Containers went bust in 2006 and its 50-per cent stake was taken over by its bondholders, who formed SeaCo.

With a fleet of around one million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) containers, the industry standard measure, GE SeaCo is the world's fifth largest container leasor  with a market in 80 countries for its standard dry freight containers, reefers, tanks, swapbodies, flatracks, open tops and the two pallet-wide SeaCell container.

Haikou, Hainan Province-based HNA, parent of China's fourth largest airline Hainan Airline, is a large privately owned corporation with air transportation as its core business and is also into other industries such as tourism & service, airport management, logistics, hotel management, retailing, finance and other related businesses.