The country's largest asset management company, Huarong, is gearing up to recover its large pool of problem loans by inviting investors worldwide to a public bidding.
The company is scheduled to announce a public bidding invitation today to investors for cooperation in a move to maximize the value of the bad loans it currently holds.
The move would be the latest bold move taken by the company to dispose of the non-performing assets it received from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's largest commercial bank.
"The host of assets, amounting to 14.9 billion yuan (US$1.79 billion), will be open to both foreign and domestic investors," said a senior official with the company, "and all interested investors will be treated on an equal footing."
The company has just finished a roadshow in the United States and Britain in an effort to introduce some of its assets to the potential investors and publicize China's policy environments.
The assets included in the invitation would be five packages of assets from 12 provinces and four municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing.
The 313 enterprises involved in the plan have been selected from a number of sectors, including property, construction material, electronics, transportation and foods.
Founded in 1999, Huarong has already gathered a total of 500 billion yuan (US$60 billion) in non-performing assets from ICBC, and the company has settled 6.22 billion yuan (US$749.4 million) in assets by the end of June and recovered assets worth 3.69 billion yuan (US$444.5 million).
(China Daily 07/26/2001)
