China’s HNA Group Co. said that nearly 67,400 creditors are seeking a total of 1.2 trillion yuan ($187 billion), according to a person who attended the conglomerate’s online meeting for creditors on Friday, Reuters reported. The company has confirmed 405.7 billion yuan in claims as valid and has rejected 353.5 billion yuan in claims, the person quoted Ren Qinghua, the head of HNA’s liquidation team, as saying. Another 156.5 billion yuan in claims are being assessed as part of a preliminary review while some claims have yet to be reviewed, added the person.
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China
China is pushing China Huarong Asset Management Co. to sell non-core assets, two people involved in the revamp told Reuters, while considering offering an implicit guarantee of the liabilities of the debt-laden bad-debt manager. Regulators are pressing the state-controlled "bad bank", which has been trying to restructure since 2018, to sell units including a bank, a trust, an investment firm and a consumer finance firm.
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Major shipping companies have warned clients of worsening congestion at Shenzen's Yantian port in southern China following the discovery of several asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 in the city, Reuters reported. Yantian International Container Terminal (YICT), one of China's busiest container ports with an annual handling volume of more than 13 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), has imposed stringent disinfection and quarantine measures since May 21 when the virus was discovered among port staff.
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Troubled state finance company China Huarong Asset Management on Thursday successfully completed its biggest bond redemption since default worries erupted in April, but investors remain concerned about its long-term health and that of its peers, Nikkei Asia reported. The company, originally set up to manage soured loans extended by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, repaid a $900 million bond right on time. Huarong over the weekend also repaid a 500 million yuan ($78.3 million) domestic bond, according to Bloomberg.
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China’s central bank is trying to restrain the surging exchange rate of its currency, temporarily backtracking in efforts to make the tightly controlled yuan more flexible and market-oriented, the Associated Press reported. On Monday, commercial lenders were ordered to hold more of their foreign currency as reserves in the central bank to limit sales after the yuan hit a four-year high of 6.3674 to the U.S dollar. The People’s Bank of China is trying to deter speculators after the yuan rose by about 12% against the dollar since May.
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China’s finance ministry is considering a proposal to transfer its shares in China Huarong Asset Management Co. and three other bad-debt managers to a new holding company modeled after the one that owns the government’s stakes in state-run banks, Bloomberg News reported. Policy makers are re-examining the proposal, which was first tabled three years ago, as part of discussions on how to deal with the financial risks posed by Huarong.
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China's factory activity expanded at the fastest pace this year in May as domestic and export demand picked up, though sharp rises in raw material prices and strains in supply chains crimped some companies' production, a business survey showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 52.0 last month, the highest level since December and inching up from April's 51.9. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the index to remain at 51.9. The 50-mark separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.
The U.S. banned imports of tuna, swordfish and other seafood from a Chinese fishery company, citing evidence of forced labor on its distant-water vessels, the Wall Street Journal reported. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents will detain shipments containing seafood harvested by China’s Dalian Ocean Fishing Co., officials said, in the latest example of Washington confronting Beijing over human-rights issues.
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China's banking regulator has asked lenders to stop selling investment products linked to commodities futures to mom-and-pop buyers to curb investment losses amid volatile commodity prices, Reuters reported. It has also asked lenders to completely unwind their existing books for these products, which they manufacture and sell to individual investors. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission's (CBIRC's) order to exit these products has not been reported before. It issued the order this year.
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China's market regulator has begun an investigation into suspected anti-competitive practices by KE Holdings, the country's biggest housing broker whose top backer is Tencent Holdings, Reuters reported. The investigation is the latest into China's big so-called "platform" companies that match sellers and buyers, several of which have been accused by regulators of exploiting consumers.
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