Introduction
Western-style debt restructurings are a relatively new phenomenon in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Prior to 1998, given the unique business and financing practices in the PRC, few, if any PRC entities were ever officially in financial difficulty. While there had been efforts to restructure certain debt ridden State-Owned Enterprises in the past, such offerings were largely different from what would be considered restructurings in the west and generally did not address the entities' fundamental financial and operational problems. This all changed in December 1998 when the Guangdong Provincial Government announced that its flagship international trust and investment corporation - Guangdong International Trust and Investment Corporation (GITIC)- was broke, and placed it into liquidation proceedings.
