1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:02,960 Speaker 1: We are joined now by Lena Choi, she's a senior 2 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:06,200 Speaker 1: vice president at Moody's Investors Service, to talk about the 3 00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:10,440 Speaker 1: outlook for China's non financial companies. And Lena, I know 4 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: that you are closely watching credit conditions in China. Can 5 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:17,639 Speaker 1: your outline for some of the challenges there. Thank you again, 6 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:21,200 Speaker 1: good morning, thanks for having us UM. We definitely think 7 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,960 Speaker 1: that the credit conditions for non financial Chinese companies are 8 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:28,120 Speaker 1: going to be negative UM looking out into next year 9 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:32,159 Speaker 1: UM and that's a result of both domestic challenges continue 10 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:36,160 Speaker 1: to be present as well as some external risks also intensified. 11 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:40,000 Speaker 1: Let's start with some of the internal UM. Precious property 12 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:44,919 Speaker 1: sector down downturn will continue to have negative effect on 13 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:49,839 Speaker 1: the supply chain along property sectors, associated sectors and depressed 14 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:52,840 Speaker 1: UM UM and we can demand UM in a way. 15 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 1: And also more importantly, the funding conditions UM for developers 16 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:01,960 Speaker 1: and with contagion to the broader high old space is 17 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:07,480 Speaker 1: somewhat concerning UM as well. So that's on the domestic front. Externally, 18 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:11,640 Speaker 1: we are also seeing because of the aggressive rate hikes 19 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:16,360 Speaker 1: UM in a number of developed economies, slowing global growth 20 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,919 Speaker 1: UM that would lower the demand for China exports of course, 21 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:26,080 Speaker 1: and also you know, ongoing through political tensions potentially reduced 22 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: capital inflow. And last but not least, you know, the 23 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:34,319 Speaker 1: lingering supply chain bottlenecks as a result, UM of the 24 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: ongoing COVID issues are probably going to raise course input courts, 25 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,399 Speaker 1: primarily across many different sectors. Lena, you're laying out a 26 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: pretty bearish case there. Can we talk about the risk 27 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: of default? Is that something that you want to address? Um, 28 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: Actually we do, and especially on the property UM front. 29 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: I think you have also heard from my colleagues in 30 00:01:57,440 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 1: the property team in the last couple of days the 31 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 1: definitely we are worried about the funding conditions. Just to 32 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,480 Speaker 1: give you a sense, um, you know, the broader rated 33 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,239 Speaker 1: high old space next year, UM, we are looking at 34 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:15,360 Speaker 1: sixty billion US dollar of maturity coming up for the 35 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: rated UM portfolio HIO space and a majority of that 36 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 1: UM is actually offshore maturity. So UM, yes, you know, 37 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:27,000 Speaker 1: we are still quite concerned about the funding condition being 38 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:31,760 Speaker 1: very tight and we cannot exclude um, you know, probably 39 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 1: continuous continuation of UM some difforce for financially weak developers 40 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:42,040 Speaker 1: and higher companies. We did have a support package for 41 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:44,600 Speaker 1: the property sector. As you well know the sixteen point plan, 42 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:47,639 Speaker 1: developers can access more money from pre home sales. But 43 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:50,400 Speaker 1: I'm getting the feeling you feel that this doesn't really 44 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 1: address the underlying problems in China's property sector. UM. You know, 45 00:02:55,680 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: we we definitely think the most recent UM support packages 46 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:05,200 Speaker 1: UM targeted to alleviate the liquidity pressure of developers UM, 47 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: the financially weak developers in China, and also to prevent 48 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:14,600 Speaker 1: UM to to to to a greater extent incomplete option 49 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: of the projects kind of risk. Those targeted measures. We 50 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 1: think it's credit positive UM. But however, it will probably 51 00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: take some time, yeah, UM, for us to monitor how 52 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:30,360 Speaker 1: well this can be executed and whether it can sustainably 53 00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:36,080 Speaker 1: revive contract itself, which Moody still forecast UM to decline 54 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:39,960 Speaker 1: by ten to UM for next year. So away from 55 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:41,920 Speaker 1: the kind of the central government, if you look at 56 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:44,200 Speaker 1: what the central bank can do, I mean, is there 57 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:46,960 Speaker 1: a way for the p BOC. Is there a situation 58 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,920 Speaker 1: that you can envision where maybe policy is tweaked to 59 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,440 Speaker 1: the extent that it can relieve some of the stresses 60 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: that are building or is that clearly an impossibility at 61 00:03:57,480 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: this point? I mean that it's too entrenched a lot 62 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 1: of the risk that you have outlined UM in multi 63 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:07,840 Speaker 1: space case. UM, that's that underlies the negative credit conditions 64 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:11,360 Speaker 1: on non financial companies. UM. We are not assuming you know, 65 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 1: aggressive monetary or physical easy. UM. We don't think that's 66 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:18,840 Speaker 1: likely and so far we have not seen that kind 67 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:23,920 Speaker 1: of aggressive easing UM per se. UM. You know, we 68 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:28,240 Speaker 1: will just have to monitor how the situation goes. You 69 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:30,919 Speaker 1: can't do charts on radio, obviously, but we did have 70 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:34,000 Speaker 1: an interesting Bloomberg chart out today. It shows the China 71 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:38,360 Speaker 1: credit impulse and there's a good leading indicator of earnings trends. 72 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:40,800 Speaker 1: Now that chart shows that China is about to enter 73 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:44,839 Speaker 1: a cyclical ballmarket. Can we trust that sort of reading. 74 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,160 Speaker 1: I'm probably not the best person UM to take a 75 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:53,480 Speaker 1: you know, charting or interest rate direction UM question. But UM, 76 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:56,359 Speaker 1: as I said, on the earnings front, UM, we do 77 00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:00,640 Speaker 1: see some bifurcation UM for the rate of portfolio UM. 78 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:04,760 Speaker 1: First we see the s OE state owned enterprises, you know, 79 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:09,599 Speaker 1: credit differentiation in favor of the s O s because 80 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:13,600 Speaker 1: of their strong market position, because of their more diversified 81 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:17,480 Speaker 1: and better on shore funding access. UM, we do expect 82 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:21,479 Speaker 1: their earnings to stay stable. UM. And leverage also to 83 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: stay stable. UM. On the private own, privately owned company side. UM. 84 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:30,280 Speaker 1: Obviously we have spoken about the property developers. They are 85 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:33,719 Speaker 1: going to be still in a pretty tight and difficult situation. UM. 86 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:36,560 Speaker 1: But some of these UM rated UM, you know, I 87 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:40,440 Speaker 1: G rated market leaders in some of the private UM 88 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,920 Speaker 1: sectors UM, like food and beverage for example, UM, we 89 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 1: do expect them to stay relatively steadier compared to PS. 90 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:50,840 Speaker 1: So I'm listening to you and I'm wondering what the 91 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:54,600 Speaker 1: credit default swap market is like in China, because if 92 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:57,520 Speaker 1: I'm an investor in fixed income, given everything that you've 93 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:00,960 Speaker 1: laid out, I want an insurance policy. How developed is 94 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:06,400 Speaker 1: the CDs market on the main one, UM, you probably 95 00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:09,839 Speaker 1: have to talk to our you know, our resident experts 96 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:13,080 Speaker 1: on on the structure finance front. UM that that that 97 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:18,320 Speaker 1: that's really not my expertise area. Okay, So if you 98 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:22,080 Speaker 1: had to hedge, if you were advising a client, very quickly, Lena, 99 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:27,440 Speaker 1: is there a way to hedge against some downside risk? UM. 100 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:32,120 Speaker 1: We cannot advise on hedging of our positions, and we 101 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 1: don't make comments on trading policies per se. But what 102 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:40,159 Speaker 1: I can't say on the credit side. I think definitely 103 00:06:40,279 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 1: pockets of ongoing monitoring. Clothes monitoring would be the liquidity 104 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,839 Speaker 1: conditions um for the high old space. Okay, so that's 105 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:52,039 Speaker 1: the leading indicator, and if things go negative on that front, 106 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:55,720 Speaker 1: avoid at all costs. Can I say that much safely? 107 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,279 Speaker 1: I just did. I hope you agree with me. Lena. 108 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:00,160 Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being with us in a 109 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:04,040 Speaker 1: Choi is senior VP at Moody's Investors Service, joining US 110 00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:05,080 Speaker 1: and Dea Break Asia