China Construction Bank announced Friday it has sold a mortgage assets portfolio with a book value of 960 million yuan (US$120 million) to a French bank and asset management company.

 

The assets cover 177 properties, including office buildings, shopping malls, retail stores, houses and factories, in south China's Guangdong Province, the bank said in a statement.

 

It was the first mortgage assets disposal in China without a reserve price for bidding, attracting eight foreign investors. A joint bid from French bank Calyon and DAC Management, LLC. succeeded with a price equal to 19 percent of the assets portfolio value.

 

Hong Kong-listed CCB, one of China's "big four" state lenders, is moving to strengthen corporate governance and risk control as a way of heading off problem debts, the bank said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2006)