Tuesday 11 December 2018

OKAir most likely to be acquired by Air Central China

Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
                  / KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals




OKAir is undergoing equity transfer and company sale in China in December 2018. The takeover is likely to be an aviation investment company with a state-owned background based in Zhengzhou, and this aviation investment company is Zhengzhou Air Central China International Aviation Holdings Limited (Air Central China, in short or in its stylized name, Air CentralChina).

According to Chinese media, Air Central China is a company with 40%, 30% and 30% equity respectively held by Jianye Holdings Co., Ltd. and both state-owned Henan Investment Group Co., Ltd. and Zhengzhou Development Investment Group Co., Ltd.

OKAir, the commercial name of Okay Airways Co., Ltd., or Okay, in short, is the first privately-owned airline in mainland China to be established in June 2004, granted AOC in February 2005 and its inaugural flight is to Changsha from Tianjin on 11 March 2005. Serving a benchmark for the Chinese civil aviation industry, the establishment and growth of OKAir is closely related to China's policy of promoting the development of the private enterprises in 2003.

As one of the earliest airlines established in China's civil aviation industry to open up to private capital, the growth of Okay Airways Co., Ltd. has been full of twists and turns. After being acquired by the private logistics company Datian Group for 8 years, it is now facing the fate of being sold again.

According to a person engaged in the aviation leasing industry, Okay has encountered relatively large financial difficulties, which have brought about relatively big problems to its  relationships with aircraft leasing companies and related upstream and downstream suppliers. 

For private enterprises, the large-scale investment in the civil aviation industry, low profits, long return on investment and cyclical fluctuations caused by external factors pose risks to the financial stability of the companies. Without a solid financial base and a mature operating system, the ability of companies to withstand risks will be weak. If the company's internal development process is turbulent and the strategic direction is not clear, it is even more deadly.

A person close to Okay told reporters that "in the past, for a long period of time, because of the defects in infrastructure structure and special market environment factors, it was decided that the branch line business could not make money, for Okay. For smaller private airlines, the fleet cost of operating both models is also a big problem. Coupled with the subsequent policy changes in this industry, a large number of new companies have been established, and the competition has become extremely fierce. Okay has no advantage in many aspects such as location and scale, so the competition began to fall behind."

The Datian Group, that originally invested a lot of resources in the development of the aviation industry, had some problems in the process of diversified business development in the past few years. As a result, the resources invested in Okay began to decrease, and began to consider the issue for OKAir, that itself has also begun to seek changes, such as the integration of non-jet flights into the route network of Joy Air, and concentration on its main trunk jet transportation business.

According to the person familiar with the matter, “The ultimate acquirer may be Zhengzhou Air Central China International Aviation Holdings Limited, which acquired 70% equity of Okay held by Huatian Investment and became the new controlling shareholder.”

According to the enterprise business information inquiry system, Huatian Investment is the company controlled by Wang Shusheng, founder of Datian Group, holding 100% equity of Okay, and Air Central China is established by Jianye Holdings Co., Ltd. and Henan Investment Group Co., Ltd. The company and Zhengzhou Development Investment Group Co., Ltd. hold 40%, 30% and 30% equity respectively, the latter two are the background of state-owned assets.

It makes sense for Okay to be transferred, and the takeover of Jianye and Henan state capital does not seem to be unexpected as it has to do with the development of the Zhengzhou Aviation Economic Comprehensive Experimental Zone. Since 2012, the construction of the Zhengzhou Aviation Economic Comprehensive Experimental Zone has become the top priority of the Standing Committee of the Henan Provincial Party Committee.

On 8 March 2013, the State Council officially approved the “Zhengzhou Airport Economic Comprehensive Experimental Zone Development Plan (2013-2025)”. This is the first pilot area in the country's aviation economic development that has risen to the national strategy. According to the plan, the strategic positioning of the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Comprehensive Experimental Zone is the international aviation logistics center, the modern industrial base led by the aviation economy, the important gateway for the opening up of the inland areas, the modern aviation city, and the core growth pole of the Central China Economic Zone.

After Zhengzhou was recognized as a national central city, it issued the "Zhengzhou Construction National Center City Action Plan (2017-2035)", which proposed to introduce large base airlines, air freight forwarding companies, logistics integrators, and establish local bases. airline. Open up new routes, encrypt flights, coordinate the development of all cargo plane flights and passenger aircraft belly cargo, and promote the development of international direct flights, air feeder lines, air express lines, air-to-air transfer and air-land transport.

It also pointed out that it is necessary for Zhengzhou as a modern aviation city to seize the strategic opportunity of “One Belt, One Road”, vigorously implement the strategy of opening up, building a high-end inland open platform to develop an international aviation logistics center, a modern industrial base led by the aviation economy, and an important gateway to the inland areas of Henan. 

It can be seen that the provincial and municipal governments have always had an unusually high enthusiasm for the development of the province's air transport industry. Therefore, this time the state capital acquisition of Okay is not unexpected.

OKAir currently operates a pure Boeing fleet of 23 Boeing 737-800s, 6 737-900ERs and 2 737MAX8s, and is also qualified to operate flights to/from Beijing Daxing International Airport.

The birth of Air Central China

Three years ago, Hu Yusen announced the new blue ocean strategy of Jianye Group, which opened the strategic transformation from “real estate developers” to “new lifestyle service providers”. Since then, the largest real estate developer in Henan has revolved around the new positioning and frequently released the transformation by involving in real estate, cultural travel, agricultural, scientific and technological, health, sports, hotel, technology, finance, leisure, tourism and aviation businesses.

On 6 May 2017, through the research of Henan Province and Zhengzhou City, Air Central China was established by Henan Investment Group Co., Ltd. and Zhengzhou Development Investment Group Co., Ltd. and Jianye Holdings Co., Ltd. to promote Zhengzhou Airport as a comprehensive economic test area.

Air Central China's registered capital is 1 billion yuan, and the legal representative is Hu Yusen. Jianye Holdings Co., Ltd., Henan Investment Group Co., Ltd. and Zhengzhou Development Investment Group Co., Ltd. hold 40 per cent, 30 per cent and 30 percent in the company respectively. Henan Investment Group is 100% owned by Henan Development and Reform Commission, and Zhengzhou Development Investment Group is 100% wholly-owned by Zhengzhou Finance Bureau.

Less than a week after the establishment of Air Central China, in the morning of 12 May 2017, Hu Yusen and his party went to the Zhengzhou Airport Experimental Area for inspection. Zhang Yanming, member of the Standing Committee of Zhengzhou Municipal Committee, Party Secretary of the Airport Experimental Area, Ma Jian, Director of the Airport Management Committee, and the heads of relevant departments attended the inspection.

The two sides stated that they will clarify the special personnel as soon as possible, establish a communication docking mechanism, speed up the study of the projects to be co-operated, strive for the early completion of the project, promote common development, and achieve mutual benefit in a win-win situuation.

On 29 August 2017, Air Central China is established by Zhengzhou Air Central China International Aviation Holdings Limited, Guangdong Airport City and Henan Airport.

According to the information, Air Central China has completed the relevant trademark registration process in 67 fields including transportation, storage, catering, hotels, office supplies, food, education and construction.

It can be seen that Air Central China will not only be satisfied with an investment platform company of the aviation industry as its ambition is in the entire aviation industry chain.

In any case, the investment in OKAir by Air Central China may be a major opportunity to influence the development of Zhengzhou's aviation industry.

History of Zhengzhou civil aviation

In 1924, Wu Peifu needed to build a "Mazhai Airport" in the southwest of Zhengzhou Old Town due to the war. In the 1930s, Eurasia had a flight to stop at Wulibao Airport in Zhengzhou. Yanzhuang Airport was once a military airport. It was only in 1956. when it was open to military and civilian flight operations.

Until the early 1960s, Zhengzhou Airport had no fixed routes and flights, and only opened the Guangzhou-Zhengzhou-Beijing route. Since 1977, there have been 6 routes and 1 departure route, which can be directly connected to Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Changsha, Guangzhou and other cities.

After the reform and opening up, Yanzhuang Airport began to expand again due to the increase in routes and busy business. About 87 years ago, the airport has a terminal and a VIP room. On August 28, 1997, Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport was completed and opened. All flights from Yanzhuang Airport in the eastern suburb of Zhengzhou were transferred to Xinzheng Airport.



In 2017, Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport surpassed Wuhan, Qingdao and Changsha, ranking 13th in China. The cargo volume is ranked seventh in the country. Up to now, nearly 20 overseas airlines and more than 10 Chinese airlines have opened direct flights to Zhengzhou.

The airlines of Zhengzhou



Image courtesy : Zheng Shuo

As early as 15 May 1986, Henan Province established its own airline, called Zhongyuan Airlines. It began its initial operations with B737-300 aircraft.

At its best business period, Zhongyuan Airlines has five B737-300, one Airbus A320 and two Yun-7 aircraft. These planes depart from the three destinations of Zhengzhou, Luoyang and Nanyang for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and other Chinese cities.

However, after all, due to the economic backwardness of Henan at that time, the passenger flow of Zhongyuan Airlines was scarce, and the loss of management was not good. In 2000, under the background of domestic airline reform, Zhongyuan Airlines merged into China Southern Airlines with “negative assets” and became “China Southern Airlines Henan Branch”. The original "Hongyuan Airlines" livery was uniformly changed to the China Southern livery, and Zhongyuan Airlines ended here.

In 2008, after several efforts by the Henan Provincial Government, Kunpeng Airlines changed its base, which was originally planned to be established in Xi'an, to Zhengzhou. Kunpeng Airlines was a regional airline established by Shenzhen Airlines and the US Mesa Group at the time. It launched flights in 2007 using three CRJ-200 aircraft and is considered to be a promising airline.

At that time, Li Zeyuan, the actual controller of Shenzhen Airlines, said that he could transfer 49 per cent of the shares of Kunpeng Airlines to the Henan provincial government and rename it "Henan Airlines". This is the second time that Henan Province has "its own airline". 





However, the Henan provincial government has not paid for the shares although Henan Airlines' base is in Zhengzhou with a fleet of newly introduced five ERJ-190 aircraft. In September 2009, Kunpeng Airlines changed its name to Henan Airlines in the absence of capital injection in Henan Province.



However, Henan Airlines did not last for a long time.

In the evening of 24 August 2010, the ERJ-190 aircraft numbered B-3130 crashed at the Yichun Airport in Heilongjiang, and 44 of the 96 passengers, pilots and crew were killed.

After the investigation, the captain was the first to fly Yichun, and was not familiar with the geographical and meteorological conditions of Yichun. Because in 2009, Kunpeng Airlines changed its name to “Henan Airlines”, so all major media reported on “Henan Airlines’ air crash”.

The response rate of the Henan Provincial Government is much faster than that of the capital investment! In the evening of 27 August 2010, on the third day of the air crash, the Henan Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce issued an announcement stating that Henan Province did not contribute or participate in the operation, and that the “Kunpeng Airlines” used the “Henan” brand to cause public misunderstanding. The crash has caused a great negative impact to Henan Province. It decided to cancel the registration of the company name to Henan Airlines Co., Ltd. and resume its original name, namely Kunpeng Airlines.

After the crash, the airline was not put into operation, and the aircraft was sold after being idle for many years at Zhengzhou Airport. Li Zeyuan was sentenced to jail in 2013 for misappropriation of funds and will serve his sentence at least until 2028.

On 19 September 2014, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission announced that Henan Civil Aviation Development Investment Co., Ltd. and China Southern Airlines Co., Ltd. jointly funded the establishment of “New Henan Airlines”. The name is “China Southern Airlines Henan Airlines Co., Ltd.”, and the “division” of the original “branch company” has been removed. As its livery and operations have not changed, most people are not aware of this change.

Some local enterprises have not given up their pursuit of an airline headquartered in Henan. On 30 June 2016, Zhongzhou Airlines Co., Ltd. was established. The company has the registered capital of 600 million yuan and is registered in the Economic Development Experimental Zone of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province.

Zhongzhou Airlines' investors include Henan Chunlai Education Group headquartered in Shangqiu. Zhongzhou Airlines completed the registration of the business license of the applicant airlines according to the requirements of the Civil Aviation Administration (2004) Order No. 138 and the registered “Zhongzhou Airlines Co., Ltd.” is the main company to carry out the application for the business registration.

Due to limited strength, Zhongzhou Airlines has not seen any further action.

Summary

Therefore, the inevitable OKAir acquisition by Air Central China has brought hope to the  re-emergence and revitalization of a true-blue Zhengzhou-based airline. The residents of Zhengzhou and Henan as a whole will be overjoyed to fly with a distinctive Zhengzhou-headquartered airline soon.

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