Several Chinese groups, including Huarong Asset Management, have been in discussions this year to buy Ingram Micro from HNA Group as the once-acquisitive conglomerate continues its efforts to retrench, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.
The U.S. technology parts distributor, which HNA bought for $6 billion, is part of the $50 billion worth of deals the conglomerate announced over the past two years. Now, faced with soaring debts and China's crackdown on aggressive deal-making companies, HNA is looking to raise cash through sales.
HNA began sounding out potential buyers for Ingram earlier this year and held talks with several Chinese investors in recent months, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
One source with direct knowledge of the matter said State-backed China Huarong Asset Management was among those that held talks.
Huarong wanted to pay less than $6 billion for Ingram but later ended discussions on concerns over whether it could achieve U.S. regulatory approval, the source said.
The sources did not identify the others that had shown an interest in Ingram. A sale to any Chinese bidder is expected to be complicated by the U.S. terms imposed at the time of the HNA-Ingram deal in 2016. The current U.S.-China trade tensions complicate the outlook further.
HNA has "no plans or intention to sell Ingram" and has great confidence in the company's prospects for continuing strong growth, a spokeswoman for the group said late on Monday.
HNA Technology Co, the HNA unit that owns Ingram, in January denied reports of a sale even as speculation mounted over the assets HNA would look to offload, with the group's debts having soared 22 percent to about $115.74 billion at the end of 2017.
China Huarong did not respond to a request for comment, while the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) that scrutinizes foreign purchases of the country's assets declined to comment.
CFIUS, when approving the HNA-Ingram deal, had said Ingram must operate as a stand-alone entity.
"Given the strict operational separateness mandated by the U.S. government... Any potential sale of Ingram to any Chinese acquirer, be it a State-owned enterprise or not, is likely to be met with intense U.S. regulatory vetting, which would make its feasibility very challenging," an Ingram spokesman said in an email to Reuters.
The composition of Ingram's board is also controlled by an agreement among the company, CFIUS and the U.S. Department of Defense, according to a report by ratings agency Moody's and a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
