SKYBRIDGE Capital LLC’s chief investment officer expressed disappointment at the U.S. Government’s nearly year-long delay in approving the sale of the hedge fund investment firm to a consortium that includes a Chinese buyer, saying it had hurt business.

“It’s frustrating that it’s taking this long,” Ray Nolte said Tuesday in New York.

SkyBridge, best known for helping wealthy individuals invest in hedge funds, said in January it had signed a majority purchase agreement with RON Transatlantic EG and HNA Capital U.S., a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group.

SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci planned to sell his stake so he could take a post in the administration of President Donald Trump.

Because of HNA Group’s Chinese roots, the deal was subject to approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is led by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Nolte said SkyBridge had lost some clients because of “noise” around the deal and had also taken in less new capital with CFIUS approval in limbo. But he said the firm’s current asset base had stabilized.

“That’s all kind of off in the past now. People don’t seem to be reacting to it,” Nolte said. “We would just like to get this closed and move on with things.”

The New York-based firm had approximately US$10.7 billion in assets under management or advisement as of Sept. 30, down from US$12 billion as of Nov. 30, 2016.

Nolte said he has stopped trying to predict when CFIUS approval would come. He cited several theories on the reasons for the delay, including a high volume of deals for the committee to process, and the desire for the government to understand HNA’s complex ownership in light of a recent restructuring.

“For the life of us, we cannot identify how SkyBridge represents either a risk to the U.S. financial system or a risk to national security,” Nolte said.

Scaramucci, who was briefly White House communications director and is now launching a media endeavor called the Scaramucci Post, echoed the point in a statement late Tuesday.

“We fully expect the transaction to close as there are no national security issues for a transaction like this,” he wrote. “We recognize that the system is overwhelmed but see no reason to see why we can’t close before year end.”

A U.S. Treasury spokesperson declined to comment on the transaction, citing disclosure rules. (SD-Agencies)