China Bad Debt Managers See Earnings Tank on Property Losses

Beijing-based Huarong, Cinda, Great Wall and China Orient Asset Management Co., were created to buy bad loans from banks in the aftermath of the late 1990s Asian financial crisis, when decades of government-directed lending to state companies had left China’s biggest lenders on the brink of insolvency. The so-called AMCs later expanded beyond their original mandate, creating a labyrinth of subsidiaries to engage in other financial businesses, including shadow lending.