Local banks have stepped in to take responsibility for illicit loans to property developers from the city's pension fund operator.

Bank of Communications, the fifth-largest bank in the country, is leading a 2.5-billion-yuan syndicate loan to help the Super Brand Mall repay money it borrowed from the Shanghai pension fund via a bank intermediary, the 21st Century Business Herald reported. The eight-year loan is expected to be released soon.

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The Super Brand Mall, invested by the Chia Tai Group of Thailand, obtained an entrusted loan of 2.5 billion yuan from the pension fund last year to repay massive bank debt. The shopping center on the east bank of Shanghai's Huangpu River has been haunted by fund shortages and poor business performance since its inception construction began in 1993 and it opened in late 2002.

The entrusted loan from the Shanghai pension fund was granted based on the mall's assets, valued at 5 billion yuan. The five-year loan carried an interest rate of 7 percent, 10 percent higher than the bank rate at the time.

It is estimated that a dozen local property developers also borrowed heavily from the Shanghai pension fund in the form of entrusted loans to finance real estate projects when the central government tried to tighten control over the sector.

Shui On Land from Hong Kong received a 1.5 billion yuan entrusted loan from the pension fund via the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank to finance its project in the city's Yangpu District. But Shui On announced at the end of last year that it had paid back the money by borrowing 875 million yuan from HSBC.

The Shanghai government has embarked on an aggressive campaign to recover misused pension fund money, following scandals that resulted in the downfall of former Shanghai Party chief Chen Liangyu, several other senior central and local government officials and many business leaders.

While it is unknown how many entrusted loans the Shanghai pension fund granted through local banks, its task to recover both principal and interest on the loans is expected to wrap up this month.

(China Daily 02/07/2007 page15)

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