There is pressure to resolve the fate of China’s bad debt manager Huarong
Six months after President Lai Xiaomin was found guilty of corruption and executed, Huarong Asset Management, the fate of China’s biggest bad debt manager, is no clearer and its commitment to Beijing is growing.
One of the four state-owned asset management companies created in 1999 to clear the debts of the banking sector after the Asian financial crisis, the turmoil in Huarong has deepened since Lai’s death.
The failure to release its financial accounts for 2020 and the lack of Rmb1.7tn ($ 261 billion) in assets on the balance sheet has caused major uncertainties in the $ 22 billion in bonds the group sold to international investors.