According to the audit data of authoritative departments recently obtained by China Business News, in the risk assessment of accounts receivable transfer business of China Development Bank (hereinafter referred to as CDB), Huawei's relevant situation was mentioned as a case.
Loans are one of the important sources of funds for Huawei's overseas expansion. Huawei transferred the accounts receivable to CDB to obtain a loan. In 2004, CDB agreed to provide Huawei with a financing line of $654.38+000 billion in the next five years, and the five-year period is about to expire. Relevant financial experts of Fosun Group said that banks should be more cautious when approving similar loans after being reminded of relevant risks.
"Innovative Loan" for Accounts Receivable Transfer
During the audit of CDB, the relevant departments found that there was a credit form of accounts receivable transfer in the bank's foreign exchange loans. At present, there are no laws and regulations in China to clearly regulate the transfer of accounts receivable. During the audit, the relevant authorities analyzed the specific practices of accounts receivable transfer, and found that there were some problems such as insufficient credit risk compensation, reducing financial risks and tax defects. Huawei is an important customer of this kind of business in banks.
The main operation mode of CDB accounts receivable transfer is that the loan provider (such as Huawei) sells the accounts receivable to the bank, and the bank only obtains the collection right under the sales contract, and the bank entrusts the loan provider to collect the accounts receivable and interest and deliver them to the bank on schedule. If the accounts receivable are risky, the loan enterprise promises to buy back the accounts receivable.
However, after auditing, it is considered that there are three problems in this behavior: First, it relies heavily on the credit risk of loan suppliers, and the credit guarantee of the credit contract itself is insufficient.
Second, it increases the financial risk of the loan enterprise. For example, after Huawei transfers the accounts receivable to the bank, although it still bears the repurchase risk of the accounts receivable, the money will not be reflected in the financial statements as a bank loan or contingent liability.
The audit department believes that this has reduced the asset-liability ratio of enterprises to a certain extent, partially covered up the debts of enterprises, affected the authenticity of financial statements of enterprises, increased the financial risks of enterprises, and further increased the medium and long-term risks of credit funds.
Taking Huawei as an example, the report said that by the end of 2006, the balance of accounts receivable transfer business handled by Huawei in this bank was more than 7 billion yuan. According to the audited financial report, Huawei's asset-liability ratio at the end of 2006 was 66%. If the accounts receivable pledge loan is adopted, the asset-liability ratio will increase a lot, which does not include the amount of similar business handled by Huawei in other financial institutions.
Third, this move provides enterprises with a reasonable means of tax avoidance. According to the relevant provisions of the Administrative Measures for Pre-tax Deduction of Enterprise Property Loss (People's Republic of China (PRC) State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China Order No.200513), accounts receivable belong to the scope of enterprise property, and the losses arising from its normal transfer can be declared for pre-tax deduction without the approval of the tax authorities.
Therefore, the loan supplier can use the transfer of accounts receivable with the bank to declare the loss of accounts receivable transfer and deduct the taxable income. This situation is mainly due to the fact that the relevant departments have not yet established and improved the laws and regulations on the transfer of accounts receivable, and there are tax defects.
The audit results show that accounts receivable transfer financing is a new financial business and has certain positive significance. However, due to the above risks in actual operation, it is suggested that CDB take measures to reduce risks in relevant business links.
According to the relevant financial experts of Fosun Group, this financing method is widely used in foreign trade and enterprises with overseas business, and the risk for banks is higher than that of ordinary loans.