Chinese conglomerate HNA Group has quietly bought 9.9 per cent of Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender and a middling Wall Street institution.
Some security-conscious Americans may balk at a Chinese Communist party member controlling such a stake in one of the west’s most important banks. It would cut little ice that HNA chairman Wang Jian is matey with Steve Schwarzman, boss of buyout group Blackstone, when co-chairman Chen Feng is close to China’s President Xi Jinping.
Conspiracy theories are inevitable, given that Deutsche does not appear to have known about open market stake-building to just below the threshold requiring German regulatory approval.