China Minsheng Investments in talks to buy US private jet company

China Minsheng Banking Corp Falcon 7X

According to a Bloomberg interview with China Minsheng Investments (CMI) vice president Kong Linshan, the Shanghai based company is in talks to acquire a US based private jet company.

CMI, who signed a strategic agreement with Luxaviation earlier in the year, were established and registered in Shanghai during 2014. It is one of the largest private investment companies in China and is made up of 59 private enterprises across the country. It has a registered capital base of 50 billion yuan ($8 billion).

The company’s first business aviation investment was made in November 2014 with the purchase of a controlling stake in Minsheng International Jet, with the company reportedly paying $194 million for the 61.25% stake. The following month it completed the purchase of Hong Kong aircraft manager Asia United Business Aviation Limited, who became a wholly owned division of Minsheng International Jet company.

CMI began building up its aviation portfolio outside of China with the formation of a strategic partnership with Luxaviation in May 2015. Luxaviation, headed by Patrick Hansen, had been buying up operators across Europe for several years, and had previously tried to complete the purchase of an Asian operator earlier in the same year.

Although no details of the strategic partnership have been released, according to the same Bloomberg article, CMI paid $132 million for a 33.7% stake in Luxaviation.

The newest acquisition, if completed, would start to build the CMI / Luxaviation brand in the US. Kong Linshan didn’t reveal the name of the company that CMI are targeting, but he did say that they are based on the West Coast of the US.

Kong also didn’t explicitly state that the company they are in talks with is an aircraft operator. Instead he said that it was a ‘private jet company’.