Travana Inc. was an online

travel agency A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destina ...

(OTA) co-founded in 2015 by Jason Chen, an American entrepreneur. The company was headquartered in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and used janbala.com as its online representation. About 90% of Travana's

equity stake In finance, equity is an ownership interest in property that may be subject to debts or other liabilities. Equity is measured for accounting purposes by subtracting liabilities from the value of the assets owned. For example, if someone owns a ...

was owned by

HNA Group HNA Group Co., Ltd., was a Chinese conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Haikou, Hainan, China. Founded in 2000, it was involved in numerous industries including aviation, real estate, financial services, tourism, logistics, and ...

, a Chinese conglomerate based in

Haikou Haikou; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanized as Hoihow is the capital city, capital and most populous city of the Chinese province of Hainan. Haikou city is situated on the northern coast of Hainan, by the mouth of the Nandu River. ...

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

, China. However, Travana suddenly closed amid controversies in 2016 after only 14 months of operation.

History

Travana, Inc. was registered with the

Airlines Reporting Corporation The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) is a company that provides ticket transaction settlement services between airlines and travel agencies (both traditional and online) and the travel management companies that sell their products in the Unite ...

(ARC) and the

International Association of Travel Agents Network The International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN) is a Miami-based trade association in the United States representing the interests of its member companies (airlines) and the U.S. travel distribution network (travel agencies). It is an in ...

(IATAN). It operated in San Francisco,

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. In August 2016, Travana launched an online a travel agency called Janbala.com. HNA, a Chinese conglomerate, approached Travana in early 2015. In November 2015, HNA committed US$50 million in funding in exchange for a 90% equity stake with a pending investment of $150 million in the new venture. As a result, Travana became a Chinese majority-controlled company, with American employees and an HNA representative from China. Within 10 months, Travana became a fully operational OTA with a notable presence in the industry. It hired over a hundred employees and contractors, launched a booking platform, connected with airlines serving U.S. Consumers, and entered into agreements with travel suppliers.

Controversies

HNA invested in Travana in late November 2015. Just over a year later, the firm filed for bankruptcy amid several litigations, parts of HNA's broader struggles managing its US acquisition spree. Amidst widespread and damaging corruption allegations against HNA, its CEO Adam Tan instructed that the CEO Jason Chen be fired and Travana be restructured without board meeting or resolution. Numerous allegations of wrongdoings surrounding Travana against HNA are sited. HNA with its unusual ownership and a complex array of affiliates has a network of operations and interconnected deals with friends and family members of top executives, that were difficult to track. As a result, the company filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

and its former CEO, Chen accused HNA of

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

. Travana's board, controlled by HNA, made counter arguments in their filings in court.

Legal actions

Following the collapse of Travana in March 2017, a group of creditors filed for Chapter 7 Involuntary Bankruptcy in an effort to protect its valuable assets. Then, in July 2017, its minority

stockholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the l ...

s filed a

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

against HNA, its Chairman Wang Jian, its CEO Adam Tan, and HNA-appointed board members at Travana. The lawsuit was filed for breach of

fiduciary duty A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties (legal person or group of persons). Typically, a fiduciary prudently takes care of money or other assets for another person. One party, fo ...

breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other part ...

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

and other legal causes of actions.

References

External links

janbala.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Travana HNA Group Defunct transportation companies of the United States American travel websites Online travel agencies Companies based in San Francisco Transport companies established in 2015 Transport companies disestablished in 2016 2015 establishments in California 2016 disestablishments in California Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area