China: HNA's Chen flies close to the sun on wings waxed by debt

There’s an old joke: How do you build a $100 million airline? Start off with a $1 billion airline. Under founding Chairman Chen Feng, HNA Group Co. appears to have gone in the opposite direction. From its first flight in 1993, through a $25 million investment from George Soros in 1995 and a 2000 restructuring, the former Hainan Airlines has never stopped growing.