China Great Wall Asset Management restructured as joint-stock company

BEIJING - China Great Wall Asset Management Corporation, one of the country's four asset management companies set up to deal with the toxic assets of State-owned banks, became a joint-stock company Sunday.

Great Wall Asset Management is entering a new stage with a modern corporate system and market-oriented management, company chairman Zhang Xiaosong said at a ceremony marking the founding of the firm.

The new joint-stock company has a registered capital of 43.15 billion yuan ($6.26 billion), with 97 percent of shares held by the Ministry of Finance, 2 percent by the National Council for Social Security Fund and 1 percent by China Life Insurance Company.

Currently, Great Wall has 11 subsidiaries ranging from banking and securities to trust and leasing. By the end of November, the corporation's assets under management were valued at 644.7 billion yuan, with net assets at 56.9 billion yuan.

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

The four companies finished the State-assigned task of dealing with the toxic assets in 2006, and have run a pilot program of restructuring firms in to joint-stock companies since then.

In 2010, Cinda was restructured in to a joint-stock firm, followed by Huarong in 2012, and Orient in August this year.

Cinda and Huarong have both been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.