Ingram Micro parent cries false alarm over sale rumours

Reports that Ingram could be offloaded surfaced late last week, when one of its parent's subsidiaries suspended trading of its shares

Ingram Micro's Chinese parent company has scotched rumours it's planning to offload the distributor to US-based Synnex, after one of its subsidiaries suspended the trading of its shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange SSE (SSE).

Tianhai Investments, a unit of the Chinese conglomerate, issued a statement to the SSE last week, suspending trading pending a "major announcement" which it said would arrive today (15 January).

Rumours then began circulating claiming that the announcement could involve the sale of Ingram, but these were quickly shot down by HNA.

In a statement sent to the SSE yesterday, reported by Reuters, HNA said: "Ingram Micro is an important, strategic investment project to the company and is a key cornerstone and asset to the company's transformation and development."

Ingram Micro has also moved to quash the rumours and in a statement sent to us said: "We have spoken with executives at HNA Group and Tianhai Investment who have confirmed that the trading halt in Tianhai Investment shares is not related to any plan to sell Ingram Micro.

"Per the HNA executives, Ingram Micro is a major strategic investment for HNA Group and a cornerstone in Tianhai Investment's development and technology transformation."

HNA acquired Ingram Micro for $6bn in 2016, and has also made investments in Deutsche Bank and Hilton, taking its recent spend to around $50bn.

At the time of publication Tianhai's shares had not restarted trading. An update said the company is "verifying significant issues to related parties", but was hopeful all issues would be disclosed today.

This afternoon another HNA subsidiary, Hong Kong International Investment, released a statement confirming it had secured new funding to repay loans taken out for a property development in Hong Kong, easing the financial pressure on the group.

At the time of publication there had been no further updates from either HNA or Tianhai Investment.