Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In or around 2014, China Development Bank (CDB) entered into a loan agreement with CEFC China Energy — a privately-held Chinese finance, oil, and gas conglomerate — to acquire a 5% equity stake in J&T Finance Group SE — a Czech banking and finance company. In May 2015, a CEFC China Energy established a subsidiary, CEFC Group (Europe) Holdings Co. Ltd., and the vehicle purchased the stakes for $78.95 million USD. In September 2015, CEFC raised its stakeholding an additional 5% in September (via it subsidiary CEFC Hainan International Holdings Co., Ltd.). On March 30, 2016, J&T announced in a press release that CEFC would acquire 50% shares in the company, and that the firm had entered into a cooperation framework agreement with CDB for further capital investments of 800 million EUR. Then on September 14, 2017, J&T Group announced in a press release that the European Central Bank approved a CEFC takeover of 50% shares in J&T. However, in 2018, industry reporting indicated the CEFC Group Chairman Ye Jianming was involved in criminal activity, among company-wide financial instability. Then, CEFC Europe failed to repay an approximately €450 million EUR debt to J&T Group subsidiary, J&T Private Investment. On May 16, 2018, J&T Group issued a press statement which claimed that CEFC investments in the group were "fully secured by creditworthy assets," though that further cooperation may depend on the outcomes of ongoing investigation. On May 17, J&T seized a portion of CEFC’s Czech assets, including the board of CEFC Europe. Then, on 25 May, CITIC — Chinese state-owned financial company —announced that it would repay CEFC’s debt, but did not do so quickly, and J&T overtook the shareholding of CEFC Europe and installed crisis management. CEFC Shanghai Then, in March 2020,CEFC China Energy and both its subsidiaries CEFC Hainan International and CEFC Shanghai International, were all declared bankrupt.