China’s banking regulator is considering setting up new regional bad-debt managers to help clean up risks after the failure of thousands of peer-to-peer lending platforms, according to people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg News reported. Companies in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Shenzhen have submitted applications to set up local asset managers dealing with bad loans, especially those from online lending platforms, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.

Brigita, a director at one of China’s largest car dealers, is running out of options. Her firm’s 100 outlets have been closed for about a month because of the coronavirus, cash reserves are dwindling and banks are reluctant to extend deadlines on billions of yuan in debt coming due over the next few months. There are also other creditors to think about, Bloomberg News reported. “If we can’t pay back the bonds, it will be very, very bad,” said Brigita, whose company has 10,000 employees and sells mid- to high-end car brands such as BMWs.

British Steel’s Chinese bidder has written to the French government in an effort to save its stalling takeover of the collapsed UK manufacturer, the Financial Times reported. With the clock ticking down on a deadline for the deal to be completed, Chinese conglomerate Jingye has sent a letter to the French finance ministry to persuade Paris of the plan’s merits, said people with knowledge of the matter. UK officials agreed a £50m rescue deal with Jingye in November. Under the agreement, Jingye would take control of the group’s plants in Britain, France and the Netherlands.

Dollar bonds of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. jumped to the highest in almost seven months after plans emerged of a government seizure of the embattled firm, Bloomberg News reported. Once the poster child for China’s debt-fueled overseas acquisition spree, HNA could now find itself a takeover target of Beijing, a plan that may involve the sale of its lucrative airline assets in an effort to limit the economic damage of the coronavirus.

Chinese lenders have cut a benchmark lending rate in a bid to prop up the country’s virus-hit economy as S&P warned that banks faced a surge of up to $1.1tn in bad loans, the Financial Times reported. Major lenders on Thursday reduced the one-year loan prime rate — a key lending rate used across China’s financial system — by 0.1 percentage points to 4.05 per cent. The reduction, which had been expected following the central bank’s own cut to its medium-term lending rate earlier this week, will ease lending conditions.

China plans to take over indebted conglomerate HNA Group Co. and sell off its airline assets, the most dramatic step to date by the state to contain the deepening economic damage from the deadly coronavirus outbreak, Bloomberg News reported. The government of Hainan, the southern island province where HNA is based, is in talks to seize control of the group after the contagion hurt its ability to meet financial obligations, according to people familiar with the plans.

China is finally speeding up its creaky bankruptcy process after two years of record defaults. Within one day of filing paperwork, a Beijing court has accepted a creditor’s application to start the restructuring process for Peking University Founder Group — a state-linked conglomerate with connections to a prestigious university that’s tangled up in legal drama with a fugitive billionaire, Bloomberg News reported in a commentary. It could become one of China’s biggest defaults.

Bondholders caught in a $850 million state-backed corporate default in China were split over an offer to repay them roughly 40 cents on the dollar, in only the second distressed test of the country’s offshore bond markets in 20 years, Reuters reported. Qinghai Provincial Investment Group (QPIG), an energy and mining conglomerate, missed an interest payment on Jan. 10, triggering defaults on three dollar-denominated bonds. On Feb.

China’s provinces are facing the economic fallout from the coronavirus with depleted ammunition, given they were already bracing for a deterioration in public finances before the outbreak hit, Bloomberg News reported. More than half of mainland provinces expect slower expansion of revenue in 2020 than last year’s average local income growth, according to their budgets published before the disease outbreak became widespread in January. Hubei, the epicenter, was already expecting income to fall.

A state-owned Chinese aluminum producer’s proposal to settle $850 million of defaulted bonds is meeting strong resistance from investors, throwing in doubt a restructuring plan that entails steep losses for bondholders, Bloomberg News reported. On Friday, offshore creditors of Qinghai Provincial Investment Group Co. published a letter to Chinese government entities including top regulators in a Hong Kong newspaper, calling on the defaulter to withdraw its offer of a debt overhaul.