The commodities trader said on Friday that $579 million of the deal had closed. It added that three assets located in the United States would be transferred to HNA in 2018 upon receiving clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews national security implications of foreign investments in US firms or operations.
In a two-year acquisition spree, privately owned HNA has signed $50 billion worth of deals, buying stakes in logistics firms, hotels such as Hilton and even Deutsche Bank. This has prompted US and European authorities to closely examine the Chinese firm's ownership. CIFUS has not yet given its approval to a number of other major deals by HNA.
HNA said, in a separate statement, that the companies had completed the deal and would operate HG Storage International Ltd's portfolio in Europe, Africa and the Americas as a joint venture. It did not mention any pending US approval for the transfer of three US assets. A spokeswoman for HNA did not have an immediate comment on CFIUS approval. Glencore declined to comment further. CFIUS declined to comment.
HNA has come under pressure to provide greater clarity about who owns the conglomerate. The CIFUS process has held up the completion of HNA's majority stake purchase in Skybridge Capital, owned by former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
This month, US software firm Ness Technologies S.A.R.L. said it was suing HNA for failing to adequately answer CIFUS' questions about its ownership, accusations that HNA has dismissed as baseless. Glencore had been looking to sell a bundle of its global oil storage stakes, following similar moves by rivals as a boom period for storage showed signs of ending.