Cinda to IPO in Hong Kong

Bad debt bank has yet to decide on timing or venue of listing.

China Cinda Asset Management Corporation, one of four companies managing China’s bad loans, has begun preparations for its much-anticipated IPO. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and UBS have started working on Cinda’s listing.

If Cinda decides for a single primary listing in Hong Kong, an application to that effect could be filed in August and the IPO may happen as early as the end of the year.

Other sources, however, said Cinda was more likely to come to market early next year because of the complicated restructuring process involved.

Cinda’s IPO is one of the most hotly anticipated IPOs in recent years from China’s financial sector. It could pave the way for a number of similar listings of China’s three other “bad banks:” Orient Asset Management, Great Wall Asset Management and Huarong Asset Management.

The Ministry of Finance established Cinda in 1999 as part of a restructuring of the banking sector that paved the way for China’s biggest lenders to list overseas. It is one of four AMCs set up to remove an estimated US$228 billion in bad loans from China’s top four state-owned banks.