China

Slower Chinese inflation in May, combined with below-expectation bank lending, added to a downbeat picture of the world’s second-biggest economy in the current quarter, following the release of new data Sunday, the Irish Times reported. China’s economy grew at its slowest pace for 13 years last year, and so far this year it has failed to register a significant upturn, prompting downgrades from some economists who fear the country would even fall short of its annual growth target of 7.5 per cent.

Local creditors of Wuxi Suntech, the bankrupt unit of Chinese solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd, on Wednesday claimed the subsidiary owed them a combined $2.5 billion, at the start of a debt restructuring process expected to last months. Wuxi Suntech, the biggest subsidiary of New York-listed Suntech Power, filed for bankruptcy protection in China in March, five days after its troubled parent company defaulted on a $541 million dollar convertible bond.

Having trouble borrowing from the banks? Or trusts? Or pawn shops, underground lenders, wealth management products, corporate finance companies, or small-loan companies? Don’t worry. China’s securities companies are also in the loan game, The Wall Street Journal China Real Time blog reported. It would seem that there is no shortage of avenues through which to tap credit these days in China. If anything, mounting debt levels, fueled by the shadowing banking sector, is raising concerns that credit is being dispensed too freely. Into this step China’s brokerages.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. reached a new forbearance agreement with the majority of holders of the company's 3% convertible notes, giving the solar-panel maker more time to work on its restructuring plans, Dow Jones Newswires reported. A principal payment of $541 million was due on March 15, but the signing bondholders agreed not to exercise their rights under the notes and the related indenture until June 28, subject to certain criteria. "This new forbearance agreement demonstrates bondholders' continued support for Suntech.

Suntech Power Holdings Co., the Chinese solar company with its main unit in bankruptcy proceedings, said the subsidiary will meet with creditors earlier than anticipated as it reported a 48 percent drop in revenue last year, Bloomberg reported. Wuxi Suntech will meet its creditors in Wuxi on May 22 as a court in the Chinese city considers how to restructure its debts, the company said today in a statement. Suntech said it was delaying its full-year results after reporting $1.63 billion in preliminary revenue.

A credit boom in China failed to keep economic recovery on track in the first quarter, suggesting the cash sloshing around the economy is not yielding the desired effect of stoking growth and could instead exacerbate property and inflationary risks, Reuters reported in an analysis. A rapid rise in credit in recent months has been driven by the fast-growing shadow banking sector rather than formal bank lending, raising two major concerns.

Cash-strapped Chinese solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd is seeking to sell some assets and bring in a strategic investor to repay debt and revitalise the company, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. "It is looking for buyers for some of its projects and downstream assets," said the source, who asked not to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media. "It is also seeking to bring in a strategic investor to take a stake in the company." "Suntech is in dire need of cash," the source added.

China’s sovereign credit rating has been cut by a major international agency for the first time since 1999 with Fitch raising concerns on Tuesday that the country’s rising debt problems will require a government bailout, the Financial Times reported. Fitch downgraded China’s long-term local currency rating from AA- to A+, citing a number of “underlying structural weaknesses” in the Chinese economy, including low average incomes, lagging standards of governance, and a rapid expansion of credit.

China’s local governments may have more than 20 trillion yuan ($3.2 trillion) of debt, former Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng said, almost double the figure given in a 2011 report by the National Audit Office, Bloomberg reported. The combined debt of China’s central governments and the nation’s provinces and cities may currently be more than 30 trillion yuan, Xiang, who served as finance minister from 1998 to 2003, said at the Boao Forum for Asia. Local governments had 10.7 trillion yuan of debt at the end of 2010, the auditor said in its report.

Suntech Power Holdings Co., forced to put its Chinese solar unit into bankruptcy last month, began that slide into insolvency in 2009 when customers linked to the founder couldn’t pay their bills and the company booked the sales as revenue anyway, regulatory filings show, Bloomberg reported. Seven buyers backed by an investment firm funded by Suntech and its founder, Shi Zhengrong, accounted for 29 percent of Suntech’s uncollected bills as 2009 ended, according to correspondence between the solar company and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.