HNA Group Co., the once-acquisitive Chinese conglomerate that's been selling billions of dollars in assets this year amid soaring borrowing costs, said that Co-Chairman Wang Jian died after an accident in Provence, France. He was 57.
Wang, who was on a business trip, had a fall from which he couldn't recover, HNA said in a statement on its website. Wang died Tuesday morning after falling from a 15-meter high cliff while having his photograph taken in Bonnieux, according to a police officer reached by phone from Avignon. The death isn't being viewed as suspicious, the officer said.
Wang's sudden death comes at a time when the group, one of China's most indebted companies, was showing signs of putting its biggest problems behind it. China's top leaders agreed to help HNA, people familiar with the matter said last month, providing much-needed relief for a company that couldn't generate enough profits last year to pay interest expenses.