Chairman Chen will have to step up after death at HNA

HONG KONG: For HNA Group Co leader Chen Feng, the sudden death of his No. 2 raises the pressure for the Chinese tycoon to step up his involvement in fixing the finances of a group saddled with more than US$90bil in debt.

The late Wang Jian, the junior of HNA’s two chairmen, died while sightseeing in a French village this week at a time the group was undertaking an urgent restructuring that’s already involved more than US$16bil in asset sales this year. That leaves remaining managers, particularly Chen, to split the challenge of navigating one of China’s most indebted companies toward the path of normalcy.