HNA, the aviation-to-finance conglomerate that once was a poster child for China’s international ambitions, is facing a fresh challenge at home: middle-aged citizens worried about money they lent to the company are agitating via social media. 

There have been renewed signs of liquidity strains at the group, despite the $18bn it has raised this year via asset sales. That has sparked fears among investors in peer-to-peer financing products issued by the company that they may not get their money back, with some complaining that they had not seen any warning signs of HNA’s parlous state.

“I had not seen any reports about HNA’s problem,” said one worried investor, an estate agent who ploughed about Rmb1m in savings into HNA-backed products offering 8 per cent interest. “If I had, I definitely would not have invested in the products.”