SWITZERLAND. Swiss inflight services provider gategroup, which was recently acquired by HNA Group, will be delisted from the Six Swiss Exchange on 27 April. Its publicly held shares have been cancelled.
In a statement, the company said the Commercial Court of the Canton of Zürich “cancelled all registered shares of gategroup Holding AG not directly or indirectly held by HNA Aviation (Hong Kong) Air Catering Holding Co., Ltd., Hong Kong based on article 137 of the Financial Market Infrastructure Act”. The decision was dated 6 April.
Cash compensation of CHF53 (US$53.14) for each cancelled share will be paid to holders, corresponding to the offer price paid by HNA in its public tender offer for all publicly held shares of gategroup.
Yesterday (18 April), SIX Exchange Regulation definitively approved the delisting of gategroup’s registered shares from SIX Swiss Exchange as of 27 April. The last trading day of the shares will be 26 April.
HNA completed its acquisition of gategroup in December. On a fully diluted basis, the transaction valued gategroup at approximately CHF1.4 billion (US$1.47 billion).
HNA will operate gategroup as an autonomous portfolio company, and said it was committed to retaining gategroup’s headquarters in Switzerland and supporting its Gateway 2020 strategy as a responsible industrial owner with a long-term investment horizon.
Xavier Rossinyol, CEO of gategroup, said at the time of the closing of the acquisition that it would “take the company to a new level of our strategy of efficiency and growth, especially in the Asia Pacific region”.
Gategroup also recently acquired Air France’s inflight catering unit Servair, creating a “clear world leader” in inflight catering, it said.
HNA Group is a privately owned Fortune Global 500 Corporation headquartered in Haikou, Hainan Island, China with operations in the aviation sector, infrastructure and real estate, financial services, tourism (including duty free retailing) and logistics. It controls Haikou Meilan Airport Duty Free Shop, which offers highly successful offshore duty free shopping to Chinese travellers at Haikou Meilan International Airport on Hainan Island.
