(Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate HNA Group’s bid to buy a majority stake in SkyBridge Capital, a hedge fund investment firm founded by U.S. President Donald Trump’s former aide Anthony Scaramucci, has been called off after facing regulatory resistance.
The deal had faced repeated delays in getting approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an intra-government agency that scrutinizes foreign purchases of U.S. assets to protect national security interests.
HNA and SkyBridge said in a statement they found that it was not in their interests to pursue the transaction as significant time had passed since the deal was first announced and due to the “uncertain timing” of the approval process going forward.
SkyBridge and HNA Capital, a unit of the HNA Group, now plan to explore the development of a “mutually beneficial marketing and distribution arrangement” of SkyBridge’s offerings in China, the statement showed.
Scaramucci, who last year had a tumultuous 10-day stint as White House communications director, would be returning to the firm as co-managing partner to focus on strategic planning and marketing efforts, the statement showed.
HNA, the Chinese financial services-to-aviation conglomerate first announced in January 2017 that it was buying a majority stake in SkyBridge. HNA and SkyBridge have never disclosed the terms of the investment.
The U.S. government has toughened its stance on the sale of companies to Chinese entities, at a time when Trump is trying to put pressure on China
