‘Bad bank’ China Huarong sees interim profit soar 32.8pc
Ability to turn bad debt into profit improves, with especially strong performance from its distressed asset management and investment businesses
Distressed asset management, its core business, saw total income decline by 2.1 per cent to 20.43 billion yuan in the first half of 2016, while profit before tax increased 46.4 per cent to 9.68 billion yuan.
The second biggest business segment, financial services including securities and futures, financial leasing, banking and consumer finance services, saw total income drop by 6.6 per cent to 11.32 billion yuan, and profit before tax decrease by 4.9 per cent to 3.9 billion yuan.
Asset management and investment, its third largest business segment which mainly includes trust business, saw income rise 74.8 per cent to 8.88 billion yuan while profit before tax up by 65.3 per cent to 2.07 billion yuan.
The company is declaring no interim dividend for 2016.
Huarong was established in 1999 to help resolve some 1.3 trillion yuan of bad debt at the country’s top four state-run banks. Known as “bad banks”, they buy soured loans at a discount from the country’s giant state lenders and then work them out, hopefully profiting along the way.
China Huarong has a growing shadow banking business, a sector which concerns analysts as the asset quality and yield are both declining