BEIJING REINS IN ‘GREY RHINOS’
China growing concerned by influence of private sector’s ‘crown jewels’ on economy
GREY rhinos have become a hunted species in China, where government regulators are clamping down on powerful private conglomerates amid fears they are racking up dangerous debt levels.
Coined by an American policy analyst, the “rhino” reference points to long-visible threats that can charge suddenly and wreak havoc, as opposed to unforeseen “black swans”.
In China, it refers in particular to four huge companies with diverse global empires: HNA (aviation, tourism, finance), Fosun (tourism, entertainment), Wanda (real estate, cinema, amusement parks) and Anbang (insurance, luxury hotels).
These are the crown jewels of China’s private sector but are now viewed as a threat to financial stability.
Their voracious acquisitions include Fosun’s takeover of Club Med, HNA’s stakes in Deutsche Bank and Hilton hotels, Anbang’s purchase of New York’s historic
Waldorf Astoria, and Wanda’s control of Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment and 20 per cent of the Atletico Madrid football club.
According to data from analytic firm Dealogic, they spent a combined US$83.3 billion (RM358 billion) on overseas mergers and acquisitions since 2013.
China had long encouraged the buying frenzies but has reversed course, and it emerged in June that regulators were investigating potentially risky loans to these companies.
“It was absolutely predictable. The debt level was growing way too rapidly,” said Christopher Balding, an economics professor at Peking University.
“We expected these problems to pop up even if we didn’t know the specific companies they were
going to pop up with.”
He added that the investments were “putting a lot of pressure on the currency”, even if the debts remain difficult to evaluate.
Other analysts concurred that the change of tack could be attributed to currency trends.
“When they were encouraging outward investment, the renminbi (yuan) was appreciating at that time,” said Anne StevensonYang, the head of J Capital Research. “Now there is depreciation pressure, and that changes things.”
As the pioneers of Chinese soft power overseas, HNA, Fosun, Wanda and Anbang were considered untouchable because of their political connections.
For example, Wanda chief executive officer Wang Jianlin, one of the country’s wealthiest men,
is a past delegate to the Communist Party congress, China’s most important political event, while Anbang president Wu Xiaohui married a granddaughter of former leader Deng Xiaoping.
But the winds have shifted. Authorities now appear to be concerned about the influence of these conglomerates, their mazes of subsidiaries and debt, and their capacity to trip up the Chinese economy.
“Grey rhinos” were “creatures of the 2009 expansion” fed by government stimulus measures in response to the 2008 financial crisis, said Stevenson-Yang.
“They didn’t really have core competencies. They fed off the stimulus and connections with all-important political figures to make that happen,” she said.
“In other words, these companies
are seen as diverting the nation’s hard currency money supply and threatening to impair the nation’s global prestige, the currency’s value sustainability and monetary policy flexibility.”
There have been indications since July of mounting government pressure.
Wanda has announced the sale of 77 of its hotels and 13 tourism projects to Chinese real estate developers Sunac and R&F properties for US$9.3 billion.
Beijing has also ordered Anbang to sell all of its overseas assets, according to Bloomberg.
The entire private sector has suffered the consequences. The only companies still permitted to make overseas investments are firms “supporting the real economy” or working with new technologies. AFP