China is set to reduce local government bond sales and rein in its budget deficit this year, scaling back the pandemic stimulus measures that fueled debt while helping the economy recover, Bloomberg News reported. The government is likely to reduce its quota for special local bonds -- mostly used for infrastructure spending -- to 3.5 trillion yuan ($541 billion) from 3.75 trillion yuan last year, according to the median estimate of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The fiscal deficit target is forecast to be cut to 3% of gross domestic product from 3.6% in 2020.
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Chinese bondholders are gaining more power in the corporate restructuring process, underscoring a renewed push by authorities to reform the nation’s $5.2 trillion credit market, Bloomberg News reported. Following a slew of defaults late last year that rattled markets, disgruntled creditors have successfully pushed for borrower concessions that would have seemed out of reach in China only a year ago.
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China’s banking regulator formalized rules that will force Ant Group Co. and other online lenders to have more skin in the game when they make loans with banks, dealing a blow to a burgeoning business that helped drive Chinese consumer spending in recent years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Starting in 2022, internet-lending platforms in the country will have to fund at least 30% of every loan they make jointly with commercial lenders, which include banks, trust companies, and finance companies.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the U.S. will keep tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by the former Trump administration in place for now, but will evaluate how to proceed after a thorough review, Reuters reported. “For the moment, we have kept the tariffs in place that were put in by the Trump administration ... and we’ll evaluate going forward what we think is appropriate,” Yellen told the cable news network, adding that Washington expected Beijing to adhere to its commitments on trade.
Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee said yesterday that its board had found no evidence of misconduct by Chief Executive Jinyi Guo during a month-long investigation into allegations made by some employees, Reuters reported. Guo, who took over after the competitor to Starbucks ousted co-founder and chairman Charles Zhengyao amid an internal fraud investigation, had denied the allegations. The coffee chain’s explosive growth was halted last year by an investigation into its accounts for overstating 2019 revenue and understating net loss.
When China’s leader Xi Jinping late last year quashed Ant Group’s initial public offering, his motives appeared clear: He was worried that Ant was adding risk to the financial system, and furious at its founder, Jack Ma, for criticizing his signature campaign to strengthen financial oversight, the Wall Street Journal reported. There was another key reason, according to more than a dozen Chinese officials and government advisers: growing unease in Beijing over Ant’s complex ownership structure—and the people who stood to gain most from what would have been the world’s largest IPO.
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Pakistan plans to ask China for relief on payments for power projects Beijing financed over the past eight years, the latest developing nation that’s struggling to repay debt under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, Bloomberg News reported. In informal talks, Pakistan and China have discussed easing terms on the repayment of debt on about a dozen power plants. The parties have canvassed Beijing’s willingness to stagger debt payments, as opposed to lowering equity returns.
Some of the world’s biggest investors were on the cusp of a multibillion-dollar windfall from their bets on Ant Group Co. Now they are stuck with shares that won’t pay off soon, the Wall Street Journal reported. In 2018, an exclusive group of global private-equity firms and mutual-fund managers including Silver Lake, Warburg Pincus LLC, Carlyle Group Inc. and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. took part in a coveted fundraising by Ant that raised $14 billion and minted the financial-technology giant as the world’s most valuable startup.
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Pressure is mounting on companies whose behavior could pose a risk to China’s financial system. HNA Group, the vast Chinese conglomerate that threw tens of billions of dollars at trophy businesses around the world, is nearing the biggest corporate collapse in recent Chinese history, offering a glimpse of how Beijing treats its most powerful entrepreneurs, the New York Times reported. HNA’s insolvency is the largest China has seen since the country first began using its bankruptcy law in 2007, according to Michelle Luo, a bankruptcy lawyer at Hui Ye law firm.
Embattled Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee Inc. filed for chapter 15 bankruptcy in New York, less than a year after the company said that more than a quarter’s worth of business may have been faked, Bloomberg News reported. The move will protect the company from lawsuits by U.S. creditors while it reorganizes in China, where it runs several thousand outlets. All its coffee shops will remain open for business and the chapter 15 petition will not materially impact the company’s day-to-day operations, according to a statement issued today.