Chinese regulators reportedly told large banks, SOEs to check financial exposure to conglomerate Fosun International

 

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Chinese regulators have reportedly told the country’s largest banks and state-owned companies to start a round of checks on their financial exposure to Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd, according to Bloomberg News on Tuesday.

The regulators including the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) have requested that commercial banks check their exposure to Fosun debt and understand potential liquidity risks, the report said.

The regulator’s request does not mean it wants lenders to change their financing toward Fosun, including outstanding loans, the report said.

The Beijing branch of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) also asked local state-owned enterprises for details about their links to the Fosun group that include stock holdings, debt lending and guarantees, according to the Bloomberg report.

A Fosun representative said that the group had not received any notice from authorities about the requests, and that the group’s operations remain healthy and resilient to challenges.

Fosun, whose billionaire chairman Guo Guangchang is among China’s best-known entrepreneurs, was also one of China’s most acquisitive dealmakers until Beijing’s crackdown on flashy overseas acquisitions a few years ago.

Guo on Tuesday said on China’s twitter-like social media Weibo that he finished his months-long overseas business travel and has arrived in Shanghai, currently in quarantine to comply with the COVID19 policy.

Fosun entities disclosed plans earlier in September to pare their stakes in the group’s publicly listed tourism and pharmaceutical units.