China’s plan to swap more than $150bn in corporate debt with equity from banks and other investors has moved forward far slower than expected as banks and companies question the benefits of such deals.
Of the Rmb1.04tn ($157bn) in such swaps that have been announced over the past year, banks have so far executed just Rmb142.9bn ($21.6bn), or 13.7 per cent, according to a report from UBS.
In some transactions, the delivered size of the equity investments has been just a fraction of the originally announced deals. For example, for a Rmb25bn deal between Shanxi Coking and China Construction Bank, only Rmb2bn has been swapped, according to UBS data.