UBS buys non-performing loans

UBS agreed to buy non-performing loans with a face value of US$185 million from China Huarong Asset Management Corp. The deal follows Lehman Brothers' acquisition of NPLs with a face value of US$240 million two weeks earlier — and JP Morgan's purchase of NPLs before that. Like earlier deals, the UBS purchase was part of a US$3 billion 22-tranche lot of NPLs Huarong tried to auction last December before pulling several off the sales block when bids failed to meet their floor price. But Huarong invited some banks, including UBS, to make new bids afresh. Neither Huarong nor UBS would disclose what the assets were. As with other asset management corps set up as debt warehouses for China's other state banks, Huarong was established to dispose of distressed assets piled up by the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China.