Zhongzhi, China's biggest private wealth manager, ran out of new money — ¥435B owed

Zhongzhi Enterprise Group grew into one of China's largest private wealth management conglomerates. Through licensed affiliates, including Zhongrong International Trust, it sold wealth products promising fixed returns to households, then pooled the money into long-term, illiquid investments across property, private equity and acquisitions.

The model depended on continuous rollover: new products repaying old ones. When China's property market slid, the underlying investments stopped paying. Affiliated products began missing payments in 2023, and on 22 November 2023 the group publicly acknowledged it could not cover its debts, citing liabilities of ¥420–460 billion. The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court accepted its bankruptcy liquidation case on 5 January 2024.

On 10 April 2026 the court ordered Zhongzhi and 315 related companies — 316 entities in all — into substantive consolidated bankruptcy liquidation. Administrator due diligence dated 31 December 2023 put liabilities at ¥435.1 billion against consolidated assets of ¥261.5 billion, a ¥173.7 billion gap, in assets that are mostly receivables and equity stakes that are hard to sell at anything like book value. Expected recoveries for ordinary creditors are a fraction of principal.