Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has recently arranged a syndicated loan valued USD 910 million for Hainan Airlines Company Limited (HNA) to acquire Swissport International Ltd. (Swissport). This is the largest overseas merger & acquisition in China’s aviation industry in recent years, which is set to improve the global service of HNA.

Swissport is the world’s largest provider of ground and cargo handling services for the aviation industry with presence in 42 countries. As China’s fourth largest airliner, HNA has recently established an integrated, globalized business network through inter-industry resource allocation, with focus on aviation, logistics and tourism. This acquisition will help HNA further expand business in aviation, airport management, logistics and tourism, and improve the global business presence.

By leveraging advantages of internationalized and integrated operations, ICBC has been keen to enhance cross-border integrated financial services to provide strong support for enterprises to expand overseas markets and enhance competitiveness in the world. In 2015, ICBC took the lead in completion of 25 cross-border merger & acquisition projects and acted as the financing adviser, ranking No. 1 in China’s banking industry both by the measures of transaction number and value (USD 21.8 billion in total). ICBC exclusively arranged financing (exceeding USD 10 billion) or took the lead to set up syndications for six out of top ten cross-border mergers & acquisitions of Chinese enterprises in 2015.