, Columnist
China's Bad Banks Go Rogue
Why bother with soured loans when you can flip junk bonds instead?
This article is for subscribers only.
China's distressed obligations are so intractable that even the government's own bad-debt specialists are giving up. China Huarong Asset Management Co. and China Cinda Asset Management Co. are instead busy earning their keep in the offshore high-yield corporate bond market.
The two Hong Kong publicly traded asset managers have already raised $8.6 billion issuing notes this year, well on track to exceed 2016's total of $9.2 billion. The duo's main mandate is handling the nonperforming loans of China's state-owned banks. So what are they doing selling dollar debt?