China Zhongguancun Technology & Equity Exchange (CTEE) is to help the State-owned China Huarong Asset-Management Corp dispose of some of Huarong's non-performing assets, under a deal signed on Monday.

The two sides will team up to sell Huarong assets worth 3.2 billion yuan (US$386.4 million) in book value from 22 companies in the Zhongguancun firm's "virtual financial supermarket'' -- a platform for trading financial assets.

Other Huarong assets worth 120 billion yuan (US$14.49 billion) in Northeast, Northwest and North China will also be listed on the market for trading in the near future, said Yang Jiasi, Huarong's vice-president.

The deal makes CTEE the country's first specialist virtual supermarket for the disposal of non-performing financial assets.

CTEE was founded in March by nine companies -- including State-owned firms, listed companies and private firms -- with total investment of 65 million yuan. As a platform for comprehensive financing services, CTEE has successfully finalized transactions for 23 projects, with the trading volume being worth 3 billion yuan (US$362 million).

CTEE Chairman Li Aiqing said: "Our target is to become the country's leading regional non-open trading platform for equity transactions.''

Li is also chairman of the Beijing State-owned Asset Management Co, the largest shareholder in CTEE.

The major business lines of CTEE cover equity financing for high-tech companies and small and medium-sized firms, equity exchanges for State-owned assets, equity trust transactions for unlisted companies, trading in software property rights, and mergers and acquisitions involving foreign-funded companies.

Dong Hong, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing municipality government, said: "As the restructuring of State-owned assets speeds up, CTEE will play a more important role in bringing together partners for the trading of equity rights.''

CTEE President Xiong Yan said: "CTEE's current key goal is to become a major venue for equity transactions of State-owned assets in Beijing.''

Xiong added that the company is also aiming to become a major transaction platform for State-owned assets directly affiliated with the central government.

China now has more than 200 regional equity trading markets. Some of them, such as the Shanghai Assets and Equity Exchange, have already played important roles in facilitating equity trading and boosting the growth of local high-tech companies.

Monday's deal represents Huarong's latest attempts to speed up its disposal of the huge amount of non-performing assets it gathered from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China following Huarong's marriage with two groups of foreign-investment banking companies to launch joint-venture firms.

Huarong linked up late last year with a number of giant foreign-investment banking companies, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, to form two seven-year partnerships to jointly dispose of 12 billion yuan (US$1.44 billion) in non-performing assets.

Huarong teamed up with the CITIC Trust & Investment Co in late June to repackage a huge pool of assets with a book value of 13.25 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) into a trust pool for institutional investors.

There are still non-performing assets worth 300 billion yuan (US$36.2 billion) in book value left undisposed in the total pool of assets that Huarong gathered from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

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