CHINA's HNA Group Co Ltd and Hong Kong's private equity investor Bravia Capital recently announced they have acquired Turkey's ACT Airlines, an air cargo operator based in Istanbul, Turkey, and have rebranded it as "MyCargo Airlines".

    MyCargo Airlines, now a new air cargo arm for both HNA and Bravia, will partner HNA's logistics arm Grand China Logistics Group (GCL) to penetrate the growing Eurasian cargo market, according to the company statement.

    The new Chairman of MyCargo Airlines Zhang Youqiang said: "We are extremely happy to have made our second investment in Turkey. The country and region is a strategic focus for HNA, and we hope to utilise our investments to develop a full service logistics hub for the surrounding growth regions.

    "HNA's flagship airline, Hainan Airlines, has already begun passenger service to Istanbul, and we intend to expand our product offering in developing air cargo, shipping, and tourism businesses in the area."

    CEO of MyCargo Airlines Yavuz Cizmeci said: "We are very excited to continue our strong partnership with HNA and Bravia. The response from our customers, our employees, and our financiers is overwhelmingly positive. We are in discussions with our customers to expand our business several-fold and we have already increased fleet capacity in order to meet the growing demand.

    "In addition, we have several large-scale initiatives planned to develop operating platforms in Europe and Africa. Finally, this transaction is a key example of the recently reinforced Chinese-Turkish economic relationship, and will provide strength to the region."

    CEO of Bravia Capital Bharat Bhise said: "The completion of this transaction continues to represent our successful track record of acquiring transportation businesses. As we stated when we signed the transaction in July, our immediate next priority is strengthening and expanding on the relationships we have with our world-class customer base. I believe the induction of the 747-400 freighters on day one and our commitment to continue to deliver aircraft supports our claim.

    "In addition, we are supplementing the existing managers by putting in place experienced airline executives from HNA onto the MyCargo Board of Directors and senior management team. This is now Bravia and HNA's second significant investment in Turkey in the past year - we have high optimism for this business and the region."

    So far, Bravia and HNA have funded and bought two Boeing 747-400 aircraft, valued at over US$100 million, for MyCargo Airlines, which will be operational later in 2011.

    Additionally, up to 10 A300-600 freighters and three 747-400 aircraft, valued at over $400 million, have been ordered and will be delivered in next two years to renew the airline's existing fleet and raise capacity for growing demand.

    The carrier will operate medium- and large-sized widebody aircraft in both the ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) and network segments.

    Besides this deal, Bravia and HNA completed ten months ago the acquisition of MyTechnic, a specialist in aircraft and engine maintenance based at Sabiha Gok?n International Airport in Istanbul, the first lean (zero waste) greenfield aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) centre in the world with customers from Europe, MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and Asia.

    ACT Airlines was founded in 2004 and operated a fleet of six A300 freighters. Some of its major clients include DHL, Lufthansa, British Ministry of Defence and Chapman Freeborn.

    Based in Hainan province of China, HNA Group is the parent company of Hainan Airlines and specialises in transportation, logistics and financial services with substantial interests in aviation, shipping, finance, tourism, real estate, retail, airport management, and other related businesses.

    Hong Kong-based Bravia Capital is a private equity and investment management entity focusing on transportation and logistics projects in Europe and Asia.

(Source:http://www.shippingonline.cn/news/newsList.asp?classname=News)