China

China Huarong Asset Management is putting 380 billion yuan ($58.8 billion) of bad assets up for sale after the scandal-plagued bad-debt manager reported a record loss last year, Nikkei Asia reported. Huarong secured a long-expected rescue plan last month led by state-owned giant Citic Group, China's second-largest financial holding company. Citic is wholly owned by the State Council, the country's cabinet. The sale of bad assets reflects Huarong's determination to speed up revitalization and restructuring of its idle assets and distressed subsidiaries.

Chinese authorities have told major lenders to China Evergrande Group not to expect interest payments due next week on bank loans, according to people familiar with the matter, taking the cash-strapped developer a step closer to one of the nation’s biggest debt restructurings, Bloomberg News reported. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development told banks in a meeting this week that Evergrande won’t be able to pay its debt obligations due on Sept. 20. Evergrande is still discussing the possibility of getting extensions and rolling over some loans.

China's factory and retail sectors faltered in August with output and sales growth hitting one-year lows as fresh coronavirus outbreaks and supply disruptions threatened the country's impressive economic recovery, Reuters reported. Industrial production rose 5.3% in August from a year earlier, narrowing from an increase of 6.4% in July and marking the weakest pace since July 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday. Output growth missed the 5.8% increase tipped by analysts.

Cash-strapped property group China Evergrande Group said on Tuesday that it has engaged advisers to examine its financial options and warned of default risks amid plunging property sales, sending its stock and bond prices sharply lower, Reuters reported. The real estate giant has been scrambling to raise funds it needs to pay lenders and suppliers, with regulators and financial markets worried that any crisis could ripple through China's banking system and potentially trigger wider social unrest.

China Evergrande Group is facing mounting protests by homebuyers, retail investors and even its own employees, raising the stakes for authorities in Beijing as they try to prevent the property giant’s debt crisis from sparking social unrest, Bloomberg News reported. Police descended on Evergrande’s Shenzhen headquarters late Monday after dozens of people gathered to demand repayments on overdue wealth management products. Protesters numbered in the hundreds on Sunday, Caixin reported.

Chinese regulators are probing Haitong Securities over allegations of misconduct in the brokerage house's investment banking business, dealing another blow to the scandal-plagued company amid tightening scrutiny of financial intermediaries, Nikkei Asia reported. Haitong received a notice from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) disclosing the probe, which targets the broker's role in the financial reporting fraud case of Aurora Optoelectronics, the company said Wednesday in a filing.

China's banking and insurance watchdog issued a draft guideline on Friday aiming to improve its regulation over insurance group companies to prevent financial risks as the world's no.2 economy strives to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Reuters reported. China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) is seeking public advice on the draft and the amendments it makes to a 2010 version of the rules regulating such companies.

China will set up a new stock exchange in Beijing to provide financing for innovative smaller companies, President Xi Jinping said, as Beijing tries to increase the role of equity financing in its financial system, Bloomberg News reported.

China's market regulator proposed amendments to the country's e-commerce law, saying that licences can be revoked if the platforms fail to take necessary measures against vendors who infringe intellectual property rights, Reuters reported. The amendments are open for public review before Oct. 14, an article published by the State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) website on Tuesday said. China has been tightening regulatory control over the country's internet giants, drafting new laws in areas such as anti-monopoly and data security.