Slowing growth may be windfall to Cinda

China Cinda Asset Management Co, one of four State-owned managers of soured loans, increased its distressed-asset holdings 80 percent last year and expects buying opportunities to expand as the nation's economy slows.

China's largest so-called bad bank held 206.8 billion yuan ($33.3 billion) of distressed debts in 2014 from 114.8 billion yuan the previous year, according to financial results filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday. Cinda posted a 32 percent increase in net income to 11.9 billion yuan.

"Various hidden risks in the economic and financial systems will become apparent" as China's growth cools, China Cinda said in the statement. Cinda expects more opportunities from rising nonperforming loans and liquidity problems faced by some industrial enterprises, it said.

China's soured loans have doubled over the past three years to the highest level since 2008, official data show, as growth in the world's second-largest economy slowed to 7.4 percent. The growth rate has tumbled "a bit" too much and policymakers have room to act, central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Sunday.

The trials of Shenzhen-based developer Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd have highlighted the mounting risks of default as the government shifts the economy into slower gear and conducts anti-graft probes that have affected industries from real estate to retail.

The builder, which is tied to a corruption investigation in the southern city, missed two bond-coupon payments this month, pushing it closer to becoming the first Chinese developer to default in the dollar bond market. Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology Co became the first defaulter in China's onshore bond market in March last year.

Cinda was established in 1999, the first and largest of four asset-management companies formed to clean up soured loans from State-owned lenders.

The other three are China Great Wall Asset Management Corp, China Huarong Asset Management Corp and China Orient Asset Management Co.