Taobao sells non-performing loans, seized assets

Among the sneakers, diapers and pet food for sale on Taobao, China’s biggest e-commerce platform, is a listing that may take up a little more space in the online shopping basket – bad SOE debt. Bloomberg reports that for 4.15 million yuan ($610,000), customers on the Alibaba-owned site by can bid for the debt of a steelmaker from Zhejiang, a coastal province in eastern China. The company has failed to pay back a 9.95 million-yuan loan, including interest, so a distressed asset manager is auctioning it off to the highest online bidder. It’s not the only bad debt for sale on Taobao. Recent listings include a portfolio of 118 non-performing loans from some companies in Yunnan province, a villa seized by a bank in the southern canal city of Shaoxing, and a property in central Beijing that’s also in default.