The Chinese developer Agile Property Holdings, battling an industry slowdown and speculation about ties to China’s former security chief, said that it was in talks with banks about extending a bridge loan and that the founder’s family would commit to lending $200 million, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Shares in the company, valued at around $2.1 billion, slumped by as much as 31 percent on Monday to five-year lows as they resumed trading after a week’s halt.

China has taken a big step towards the resolution of its mounting local government debt burden with the introduction of a legal framework allowing cities and provinces to issue debt directly, Reuters reported. Last week's regulations make it clear that the central government will not bail out local obligations, a key step in creating a municipal bond market that analysts expect will reach Rmb1trn (US$164bn) of new issues in 2015.

Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology Co., which earlier this year became the first Chinese company to default on its domestic corporate bonds, plans to bring in a new controlling shareholder and two bond guarantors, The Wall Street Journal reported. The bond guarantors will likely honor the bond’s full payments, both in principal and interest. Developments at Shanghai Chaori—which failed to pay most of its bond interest in March—are being closely watched.

China stepped up its efforts on Tuesday to transform doomsday scenarios for its domestic property market into merely another round of déjà vu. The central bank reinforced efforts to boost mortgage lending by banks, building on the small but significant turnaround that beyondbrics noted in mid-September. The new policies allow buyers who already own one home but have paid off their mortgage to be considered as first-time buyers, thus qualifying for a mortgage downpayment of 30 per cent of the cost of the loan.

China's Fosun International Ltd has upped its bid for Portugal's Espirito Santo Saude (ESS) to 4.82 euros a share or 460.5 million euros ($584 million) in total, stepping up the battle over the hospital business of the indebted Espirito Santo family, Reuters reported. Portugal's CMVM market regulator said late on Friday it registered the all-cash offer by conglomerate Fosun's Portuguese insurance unit Fidelidade, while also extending by a week to Oct. 10 a rival offer by Mexico's Grupo Angeles, the first to bid for ESS. Angeles initially offered 4.3 euros a share for the company on Aug.

China is likely to delay its financial reform agenda in favour of stabilising growth, economists and investors say, in a move that could hinder efforts to correct distortions in the economy, the Financial Times reported. Deregulation of interest rates was a key plank in the ambitious reform agenda that top Communist party leaders approved last November, which promised to give market forces a “decisive” role in capital allocation.

A Chinese probe into trade financing found nearly $10 billion in fake deals, a senior official said, in the latest warning over practices that raised concern over potential losses among foreign and Chinese banks this year. The Wall Street Journal reported.

China’s four biggest banks may ease mortgage lending, the latest in a series of policy steps aimed at supporting the country’s sliding property market, the 21st Century Business Herald reported yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. Criteria for loans to first-home buyers may be eased and people who have paid outstanding mortgages may be considered eligible for first-home status, the Guangzhou-based newspaper said, citing unidentified people at Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (601398) and Agricultural Bank of China Ltd.

China has launched a fresh effort to boost its flagging economy with cash injections by the central bank, but signs are mounting that monetary stimulus is losing its effectiveness as debt-ridden companies lose their appetite for borrowing even at low rates, the Financial Times reported. ‘Mini-stimulus’ measures launched since April have focused on increasing the supply of money and credit. Last week the central bank moved to inject $81bn into the banking system via loans to the five biggest banks.

Ultrasonic launched talks with creditors to try and avoid an insolvency and formally fired its two top executives on Thursday after they disappeared along with the Chinese shoemaker's cash, Reuters reported. Earlier this week, the German-listed firm said chief executive Qingyong Wu and chief operating officer Minghong Wu had gone missing at the weekend, and most of its cash reserves in China and Hong Kong had vanished.