China Cinda Asset Management Corporation said yesterday it had reached a State-mandated target of disposing of non-performing loans (NPLs) transferred to it a little less than six years ago.

That makes Cinda the first of China's four bad debt clearers to complete the policy-based task, freeing its hands to concentrate on commercial operations in what is believed to be one of the world's most promising distressed debt markets.

Tian Guoli, chief executive officer of Cinda, said the company had recovered 54.1 billion yuan (US$6.67 billion) in cash by Tuesday, from the some 293 billion yuan (US$36 billion) it took over from China Construction Bank and China Development Bank in 1999, when it was established.

"That means we are one year ahead of the deadline set by the State," he said, referring to a 53.8 billion yuan (US$6.6 billion) target that the Ministry of Finance requires it to meet by the end of next year.

China set up Cinda and its three peer asset management companies (AMCs) in 1999 to take over a combined 1.4 trillion yuan (US$172 billion) in NPLs from State-owned lenders.

Last year, they were allowed to start commercial operations such as market-oriented NPL resolution, asset custodianship and management, but were set targets for the disposal of assets they took over upon establishment.

Even if the company fails to recover any cash from the remaining 80 to 90 billion yuan (US$9.8 to 11.1 billion) of NPLs, it will still meet a 18.5 percent cash recovery ratio target, Cinda officials said.

Expenditures on every 100 yuan (US$12.3) of cash recovered totalled 5.34 yuan (65 US cents), substantially lower than the State target, they said.

Other AMCs are still trying to meet their targets. "We are working hard, trying to reach the targets as early as we can," said an official with China Huarong Asset Management Corporation, declining to be named.

The AMCs are still dominating China's young but sizeable distressed debt market, which, according to a report released yesterday by Cinda's Financial Risk Research Centre, will be more active next year.

Besides the some 700 billion yuan (US$84 billion) of NPLs stripped from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China this year and the 278 billion yuan (US$34 billion) Cinda purchased this year and scheduled to sell next year, an acceleration in banking reform next year as local banks prepare for full foreign competition at the end of 2006 will further boost supply in the market.

The growing ranks of NPL investors are also expected to bring more funds to the distressed debt market next year given the low interest rates, a sluggish stock market and decelerating property market, the report indicated.

Foreign investors have set aside US$10 to15 billion to buy NPLs in China in the coming three years, according to an earlier PricewaterhouseCoopers survey.

But although NPLs are showing signs of a rebound this year as the State's tightening measures caused liquidity difficulties in certain overheated sectors, the possibility of massive NPL creation as seen in the past two decades is dim, said Wang Haijun, deputy director of the research centre.

(China Daily December 29, 2005)