MNI China Press Digest March 29: Opening Up; Puttable Bonds

     BEIJING (MNI) - The following lists highlights from the Chinese press for

Thursday:

     China's financial sector is not open enough and the country must focus on

further reforming and opening up the sector, stressed Xu Zhong, director of the

research bureau at PBOC, in his article published in Economic Daily. China's

financial opening up should not be abrupt and without preparation, but should be

a steady and orderly process based on enhancing financial regulation and the

transparency of the financial market, wrote Xu. Additionally, foreign financial

institutions' share in the Chinese market is not high; the bond market also

needs to be more open to foreign counterparts. 

     China's state-owned enterprises have been focused on deleveraging through

debt-equity swap and equity financing, reported China Securities Journal. The

State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SOSAC) has drawn a

warning line of debt/asset ratios for industry SOEs, non-industry SOEs and

technology SOEs at 65%, 70% and 60%, respectively. SOSAC also plans to lower the

average debt/asset ratio of SOEs by 2 percentage points by 2020, and it will aim

to have listed more than 70% assets of SOEs on stock exchanges before then, the

report said.

     There will be a total of CNY851.2 puttable bonds whose put options can be

exercised this year, which might add pressure to the bond market, reported

Shanghai Securities Journal. The ratio of the amount of puttable bonds whose put

option had been exercised, to the amount of puttable bonds whose put option

could be exercised in 2017 was 30.93%, and analysts estimate this ratio to come

to around 30%-40% in 2018, the report said. There will be a total of CNY186.1

puttable bonds in the property sector whose options can be exercised in 2018,

mainly during August to December, the report said. 

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 10 85325998; email: he.wei@marketnews.com

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86-10-8532-5998; email: beijing@marketnews.com

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