What’s new: Bank of Jinzhou Co. Ltd., one of a handful of Chinese banks that has run into trouble and is now being bailed out by the government, has released unaudited annual results that show generally improving performance with a notable exception in bad loan volume.
Nearly a year after its problems first burst into the headlines, the bank said its net loss shrank to about 1 billion yuan ($141 million) from 4.5 billion yuan a year earlier, according to its results released late Tuesday.
Its return on assets and return on equity also improved notably, though both remain negative. But its widely watched nonperforming loan zratio widened to 6.52% from 4.99% a year earlier.
Why do we care: Bank of Jinzhou could be a bellwether for many regional Chinese banks that are getting into trouble due to poor decision-making that has resulted in growing volumes of bad debt as the nation’s economy slows.
The company’s troubles first came to public attention last June, and now it is being bailed out in a deal that will make two government-owned entities, one controlled by the central bank, into its biggest shareholders.
Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. To read the full Caixin article in Chinese, click here.
Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com; twitter: @youngchinabiz)
