Established 15 years ago, the AMCs were initially treated as an expedient way of cleaning up banks’ balance sheets. Bad loans accounted for about a quarter of banks’ assets at the time. The AMCs struggled to recoup much of their paper worth. But as economic growth surged, the assets increased in value (a bankrupt factory, for example, became a prized piece of real estate). So did the AMCs themselves. With the recent downturn in the economy, they have started to look for bad loans that might turn a profit. Last year Cinda bought some 149.5 billion yuan of distressed assets—two-thirds more than in 2013—from banks but also from property developers and industrial companies. It is now trying to recoup money from them, either by finding buyers willing to pay a higher price or by increasing their value through restructuring of the businesses.