By BLOOMBERG

FRANKFURT • Deutsche Bank AG CEO John Cryan hasn’t yet met with one of the bank’s top investors but plans to do so, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.

“Of course” it will happen, the spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank said, when asked about a meeting between Cryan and Adam Tan, the head of HNA Group Co, a Chinese conglomerate that bought a 9.9% stake in the bank this year. Cryan has been avoiding a meeting with HNA, irking Supervisory Board chairman Paul Achleitner, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday.

Cryan is facing scepticism about a strategy that was unveiled in March around the time HNA was increasing its stake. Achleitner had helped attract the company as an investor, a person familiar said on Sunday. HNA said in May that it had raised its stake from 3% in February, making it the bank’s largest investor.

HNA has come under heightened scrutiny as Chinese authorities have clamped down on foreign acquisitions by Chinese investors. The European Central Bank, Deutsche Bank’s euro-area regulator, is considering launching an owner control procedure against HNA as the Chinese company is trying to bring transparency to its own ownership structure by turning itself over to a charity.

Two attempts to arrange a meeting between Cryan, 56, and HNA have failed, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the discussion is private. The strategic overhaul announced in March was underpinned by a rights offer that hauled in €8 billion (RM39.76 billion) for Deutsche Bank.

Cryan told people close to him that he would prefer not to meet with HNA executives, the WSJ reported. The report also said some senior executives at Deutsche Bank have occasionally gone directly to Achleitner, 61, to garner support for important decisions, rather than dealing with Cryan.