China Great Wall seeks investment bank role
(Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2006-02-09 16:37

State-owned China Great Wall Asset Management Co. is waiting for the government to approve its transformation to an investment bank type of institution, the Financial News reported yesterday, citing the company's president.

China Great Wall is one of four asset management companies set up in 1999 to help dispose of a combined 1.4 trillion yuan (US$173.7 billion) worth of nonperforming loans for the big four State-owned banks.

The company hopes to enter the areas of stock investment fund management, trust investment or guaranty business, president Wang Xingyi said in an interview with the central bank-backed newspaper.

China Great Wall aims to involve strategic investors, improve corporate governance, and diversify its shareholding structure, said Wang.

Wang urged the government to give speedy approval for China Great Wall's transformation into a more commercial financial company, because it achieved its cash recovery goal for policy loans one year ahead of schedule.

The government set end-2006 cash recovery targets for the country's four State-owned asset management firms. However, it hasn't publicly disclosed those targets.

China Great Wall recovered 26.77 billion yuan in cash from disposing of 253.6 billion yuan worth of bad assets by the end of last year, according to a report by the same newspaper early last month.

The business transition is not the asset management firms' unilateral wish, but the requirement of the State Council, said Wang.

He added that apart from the disposal of policy loans, China Great Wall also needs to handle more than 260 billion yuan worth of nonperforming loans acquired from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank during the three banks' shareholding reforms in recent years.