中国“明股实债”判例威胁影子银行

A court ruling in a fourth-tier Chinese city has exposed legal risks from investment in “fake equity” by shadow banks, carrying potentially broad implications for the $2.6tn industry.

来自中国四线城市的一桩法院裁决暴露了影子银行“明股实债”投资的法律风险，该判决对这一规模2.6万亿美元的产业可能造成广泛影响。

Trusts have emerged as the biggest source of non-bank lending in recent years, with assets under management reaching Rmb18.2tn ($2.6tn) at the end of September. That places trusts second only to commercial banks and ahead of insurance companies and securities brokerages.

近年来，信托公司已成为非银行贷款的最大来源，截至9月底所管理资产已达18.2万亿元人民币(合2.6万亿美元)。信托公司的地位仅次于商业银行，排在保险公司和证券经济之前。

Some trust investments are classified as loans but a significant portion is instead labelled as equity. These deals typically involve an “equity” investment paired with a repurchase agreement, which requires the investee to buy back its equity along with a fixed dividend at a specified date. The repo essentially transforms the equity financing into a debt-like arrangement.

部分信托投资被归类为贷款，但有很大一部分被标记为股权。这些交易通常牵涉与回购协议配套的“股权”投资，协议要求投资对象在指定日期以固定股利回购其股票。这种回购实质上是将股权融资转化成债务类安排。

The practice allows trusts to evade regulations intended to restrict lending to risky borrowers. In Chinese, the practice is known colloquially as “fake equity, real debt”. Analysts say fake equity is one reason China’s official debt statistics may fail to capture the full extent of credit growth in the country.

这一行径令信托得以规避旨在限制向高危借款人贷款的法规。在中国，此做法俗称“明股实债”。分析师表示假股权是中国官方债务统计数据或许没有充分反映国内信贷增长水平的原因之一。

In a little-noticed ruling last month, a district court in Wuxing district of Huzhou city, in east China’s prosperous Zhejiang district, rejected a claim by New China Trust that it should be treated as a debtholder in the bankruptcy of a local property developer.

在上个月一桩不为人注意的判决中，浙江省湖州市吴兴区人民法院驳回了新华信托(New China Trust)的请求，新华信托申请在当地一家房地产开放商破产清算程序中应被视作债权人。

New China Trust invested Rmb225m in Huzhou Port Land Real Estate Company to finance a residential development called Triumphant Return International. The deal required Port Land to repay the equity plus dividends in three stages over 30 months, but the developer made only partial repayment. In 2015 Port Land entered bankruptcy.

新华信托向湖州港城置业有限公司(Huzhou Port Land Real Estate Company)投资2.25亿元人民币，为凯旋国际(Triumphant Return International)社区项目提供资金。该交易要求港城置业在30个月内分三期偿还股本加股息，但这家开发商只偿还了部分债务。2015年港城置业进入破产程序。

In a bid to recover its money, New China Trust submitted itself to the bankruptcy administrator as a creditor. This would have granted the trust seniority over equity holders in terms of recovering assets from Port Land. But the administrator disagreed, deciding that New China was in fact an equity holder. In its recent judgment, the district court upheld that decision against a challenge from New China Trust.

为了追回投资，新华信托向破产管理人提出自己应作为债权人。这样在收回港城置业资产时，新华信托将比股东优先获得欠款。但管理人不同意，认为新华信托其实是股东。当地法院在最近的判决中坚持这一决定，驳回了新华信托的请求。

The ruling could have a major impact on China’s trust industry. Growth of trust loans outstanding dropped from 62 per cent in 2013 to only 2 per cent last year, according to data from the China Trustee Association, due in part to tougher regulation. But four other categories of trust investment, all of which potentially include fake equity deals, collectively grew 15 per cent last year.

该裁决可能对中国信托行业产生重大影响。根据中国信托业协会(China Trustee Association)的数据，由于监管加强的部分作用，信托贷款增长率从2013年的62%剧降到去年的2%。但去年其他四类信托投资总体增长了15%，其中可能包括假股权交易。

New China has not said if it will appeal against the decision. If a higher court takes the opposite view — either in an appeal of this case or in a separate but similar case — the precedent could be reversed.

新华信托未表示是否会提出上诉。如果上级法院持相反意见——无论是对本案的上诉，还是对另一起相似案例——先前判决可以被撤销。

If the precedent stands, trusts could be forced to return to more traditional lending structures. That would probably lead to less overall lending, due to the tighter regulations.

如果先前判决成立，信托公司可能被迫回到更传统的贷款结构。由于监管规定收紧，这可能导致整体贷款减少。

Alternatively, trusts could continue with equity deals but they would face pressure to change how they deal with clients. Most trusts raise funds by selling high-yielding investment products to investors, who perceive them as carrying the safety of a fixed-income product. If fake equity investors lack the seniority that creditors enjoy, trusts would in principle have to communicate this increased risk investors.

或者，信托公司可以继续股权交易，但它们将在压力下改变与客户打交道的方式。大多数信托公司通过向投资者出售高收益投资产品来筹集资金，而投资者认为信托公司承担着固定收益产品的安全。如果假股权投资者缺乏债权人所享有的优先权，信托公司原则上必须与这一风险增加的投资者进行沟通。