HNA Group is in talks to sell Ingram Micro, the Chinese conglomerate has confirmed to the Shanghai stock exchange.
The leading candidate to buy Ingram Micro is private equity firm Apollo Global Management, according to Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. HNA hopes to sell the U.S. distributor for $7.5 billion, including $1.5 billion in debt, multiple reports say.
Related: Would Apollo's Ownership Be Good for Ingram Micro?
HNA Group acquired Ingram for about $6 billion in cash in February 2016. The distributor, generally speaking, has continued to grow and perform well under the Chinese conglomerate's ownership. However, HNA has been selling off some assets in recent months to strengthen the company's balance sheet.
Apollo Global Management, meanwhile, has extensive experience investing in the IT services and technology markets. The investment firm acquired Rackspace and took the managed cloud services provider (MSP) private in August 2016. And Apollo also owns a stake in Presidio, a midmarket IT solutions provider that returned to public markets last year.
Update: This report was updated December 25, 2018 at 2:00 a.m. ET, to reflect HNA Group confirming the Ingram Micro sale talks.
