Turkish Airlines denies reports that it plans to acquire a 20% stake in Virgin Australia Holdings.

“Yesterday and today, the allegations published in the press that our company will acquire 20% of  HNA Group’s stake in Virgin Australia do not reflect the truth,” Turkish Airlines wrote in a statement on the Public Disclosure Platform on August 1, 2019. 

On July 31, 2019, Bloomberg reported that Turkish Airlines is among companies interested to take over HNA’s 20% stake in Virgin Australia, by quoting unnamed sources familiar to matter. After both Turkish and international media began re-publishing the news, the airline issued the official denial. 

“We share our objectives of developing our business partnership in the Asia-Pacific region with our stakeholders. If there are developments about this, it will be shared with the public,” is also added in the statement by the Turkish flag carrier. 

A year ago, in August 2018, China‘s HNA Group announced plans to offload some of its foreign assets in order to reduce debt. While the group never expressed an official intention to sell its 19.8% stake in Virgin Australia, the prospect has reportedly caught the interest of several other shareholders.