BEIJING - The China Huarong Asset Management Corp said on Wednesday that its first-half profits surged 160 percent year-on-year to 2.16 billion yuan ($337.5 million).

Huarong's first-half profits exceeded its 2010 profits of 2.02 billion yuan, Huarong President Lai Xiaomin said.

During the first half, the company signed cooperative deals with 41 provincial governments and enterprises, including the provinces of Fujian and Shaanxi, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Sinopec Group, Lai said.

Huarong also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Australia Bank in the first half, opening a new channel for ongoing cooperation between the two parties, he added.

Furthermore, Huarong's restructuring will be completed this year, and the company will continue to focus on the business of non-performing asset management after its transformation into a joint-stock company, Lai said.

In 1999, China set up four asset management companies, including Cinda, Huarong, Great Wall, and Orient to deal with toxic assets of the country's four biggest state-owned banks in a bid to help them transform quickly into more market-oriented institutions.

The four asset management companies started their restructuring after they finished cleaning up the state banks in 2007.