China Orient sells US$290m debt to CSFB
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-12-16 13:34

China Orient Asset Management Corp., one of country's four State-owned debt disposal agencies, said Wednesday it had sold a package of distressed loans worth 2.4 billion yuan (US$290 million) to a Hong Kong unit of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB).

The debt package was auctioned by China Orient’s office in the northeastern city of Harbin, a company spokesman said.

"Our Harbin office held the 2.4-billion-yuan debt auction and CSFB won it," said Sheng Wei, a spokesman at China Orient's executive office.

China's four State-owned asset management companies - China Huarong, China Cinda, China Orient and China Great Wall- were set up in 1999 and took over a total of 1.4 trillion yuan in non-performing loans (NPLs) from the nation’s four State-owned commercial banks.

Their establishments were a major step by the Chinese Government to reform the NPL-ridden banking sector, and followed a capital injection of 270 billion yuan into the four banks.

Earlier this month, China Orient signed an agreement with China Cinda to purchase a batch of bad loans worth 130 billion yuan, which Cinda bought from China Construction Bank, one of the two State-owned banks chosen for pilot joint-stock restructuring.

Many investors expect the flow of distressed asset transactions to grow in the coming years as the country's commercial banks clean their balance sheets in preparation for initial public offerings.

Earlier this year, the four asset management companies were given permission to accept new deals as a trustee and purchase bad assets on a commercial basis, a long-awaited reform move that extends their life expectancy beyond an original 10-year period.

The reform has also set specific targets on how much cash these companies should recover from the distressed assets transferred to them.

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