China

Protests against Chinese property controls have grown in intensity in recent weeks, underscoring the challenge for the government in preventing public eruptions of anger as it cracks down on housing speculation, The Wall Street Journal reported. In response to skyrocketing home prices, governments in China’s big cities have set limits on the buying of multiple homes and higher down-payment ratios, which has left many unable to sell their homes and others worried they won’t be able to buy in before prices rise further.

China Huishan Dairy faces a bumpy road ahead in its effort to restructure its hefty debt, as a 2.5 billion yuan “discrepancy” in its cash position implies lingering obscurities over its financial well-being, the South China Morning Post reported. The Shenyang-based dairy farm operator said in a statement on Monday that it has found a discrepancy in its cash position based on “incomplete” management accounts and confirmation received from banks. It also said it was in talks with its creditors over a possible debt restructuring.

There’s been no shortage of bad news when it comes to China’s massive debt pile, from turbulence in the corporate bond market to last month’s sovereign rating downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service, Bloomberg News reported. But look beyond the negative headlines, and one encouraging fact stands out: China’s biggest companies are healthier than they’ve been in years. Thanks to a combination of economic stimulus and state-owned enterprise reform, debt-to-equity ratios at China’s largest non-financial firms have dropped to the lowest levels since 2010.

The bank regulator in a rust-belt Chinese province has urged regional lenders to roll over maturing loans to struggling coal and steel companies, a policy that cuts against the Communist party’s pledge to shut down “zombie” enterprises, the Financial Times reported. Investors widely assume that Chinese banks keep lossmaking companies on life support by rolling over maturing loans, often under pressure from local governments.

As recently as two years ago, owning shares in a bad bank charged with cleaning up nonperforming loans in China probably seemed like a good bet. Not so any more, at least for China Cinda Asset Management Co.The Beijing-based firm's costs are rising and soured-loan growth has leveled off, or in some cases, dropped at the banks Cinda purchases nonperforming advances from. Cinda's Hong Kong-listed stock is down 46 percent from its peak in January 2014 and is trading at a price-to-book ratio of 0.67 times, well below the one times at which it was listed at the end of 2013.

ChemChina has raised $20 billion (15.4 billion pounds) mainly in perpetual bonds to finance its purchase of Swiss seeds firm Syngenta, with Bank of China becoming the single largest investor providing half of that funding, according to a regulatory filing, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

The downgrade of China’s debt by Moody’s Investors Service may push Chinese companies to borrow even more money from domestic banks as overseas debt becomes more expensive, increasing risks for the nation’s finance industry, Bloomberg News reported. With growing indebtedness at home, compounded by a slowing economy, there’s a risk of a “negative feedback loop,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research for Australia & New Zealand Banking Group who sees state-owned enterprises and property developers feeling the biggest impact.

The founder of LeEco, a Chinese Netflix-to-Tesla-like conglomerate, has stepped down as the CEO of the group's main listed unit, as the company begins to streamline and cut debt after rapid expansion led to a cash crunch, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Jia Yueting, who will remain as chairman and CEO of LeEco, envisions the group maintaining its separate unlisted automotive unit but rolling all other areas of business into Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp Beijing, according to a transcript of his remarks to journalists on Sunday.

For global investors and, indeed commentators, China remains a fascinating subject and one that carries a health warning, the Financial Times reported. Nearly a third of fund managers say the recent tightening of credit by authorities in Beijing, who are taking aim at the shadow banking sector, is now the biggest tail risk for markets, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey released this week. Not since January of 2016 has China ranked above the threat of a eurozone break-up as the biggest worry for investors.

The yield on Chinese five-year government bonds hit its highest since 2014 on Friday, as tight liquidity and a regulatory crackdown on leveraged investment caused a rarely seen inversion of the yield curve, the Financial Times reported.