General Electric, the US industrial conglomerate, will sell its sea container leasing joint venture to HNA Group, the Chinese travel and logistics company, and Bravia Capital, a private equity group, for about $2.5bn including debt.
HNA and Hong Kong-based Bravia trumped a number of US-based private equity and other companies to win the deal on Monday, highlighting the growing influence of Chinese capital in financing the infrastructure of global trade.
“You are going to see huge capital flows from China in the private equity space,” said Bharat Bhise, Bravia’s chief executive. “Generally speaking, China is tired of earning 25 basis points on their large holdings of US government securities.”