HONG KONG — HNA, the heavily indebted Chinese conglomerate, will transfer a minority stake owned by its recently deceased co-chairman to a Chinese charity, a move that is unlikely to help answer questions about who controls the company.

HNA said on Friday that it would transfer the 15 percent stake owned by Wang Jian, a co-founder and co-chairman of the company, to Hainan Province Cihang Foundation. The transaction would bring the Hainan-based charity’s ownership of HNA to 38 percent. Mr. Wang, who fell to his death last week, had previously pledged to give his stake to the charity, the company said.

The transaction puts HNA firmly in control of two charitable trusts that will own two-thirds of the company: the Hainan-based charity and a private foundation in New York called the Hainan Cihang Charity Foundation. Another 15 percent is held by Chen Feng, the company’s chairman and a co-founder, while the remaining shares are held by other senior HNA executives.

The transfer is likely to cast further doubt on HNA’s murky ownership, which has forced some Wall Street banks to stop doing business with it and drawn scrutiny from regulators in Europe and the United States. HNA has disclosed little about the trusts, such as who oversees the Chinese charity.