CHINA Great Wall Asset Management Co. officially launched as a restructured joint stock firm Sunday, with an eye toward a market listing and a bigger role in tackling China’s bad debt.

    Great Wall is one of the country’s four major State-owned bad debt managers set up in 1999 to purchase nonperforming loans from the country’s four biggest State-owned banks.

    It has handled about 1.7 trillion yuan (US$246.23 billion) in bad debt so far.

    The transition to a shareholding company means Great Wall, which was previously wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance, can now sell stakes to new shareholders and list itself on a stock market.

    Great Wall chairman Zhang Xiaosong said the restructuring marks “a new era” for the company, which will continue to focus on bad debt solutions and asset management to help curb financial risks and support China’s economic development.

    The move means it could list itself on a domestic or offshore stock market as early as the first half of next year, which would expand its capital base and allow it to take a bigger role in helping the government manage debt issues.

    Officials from the finance ministry, the central bank and the banking regulator attending Sunday’s ceremony emphasized the importance of distressed debt managers to help resolve China’s current economic problems, especially ballooning debt.

    “The economy faces increasing downward pressure. In particular, leverage in the non-financial corporate sector continues to rise and bad loans at commercial banks keep rebounding,” said Fan Yifei, vice governor of the People’s Bank of China. (SD-Agencies)