Austria’s financial regulator has paved the way for HNA Group’s takeover of an Austrian asset manager, just days after New Zealand’s overseas investment watchdog blocked a similar deal because of the Chinese company’s opaque ownership.
C-Quadrat – the Austrian firm through which HNA bought a stake in Deutsche Bank – said the Vienna’s Financial Market Authority had “no objections” to the Hainan-based company’s planned majority takeover.
“Since the releases of the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) are now available, the transaction is only subject to clearance from the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA),” the company, which has a market cap of €226.88m, said in a filing.