It is wrong to describe a recent corporate debt default in China as a 'Lehman' or 'Bear Stearns' moment, the Asia Pacific chairman for the world's largest asset manager told CNBC on Monday.
Earlier this month Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology failed to make an 89.8 million yuan ($14.46 million) interest payment, marking China's first corporate debt default in at least 17 years.
Given that China's tightly controlled economy does not normally allow defaults, analysts have voiced some concern that the Chaori default could lead to a broader credit crunch. They have drawn parallels with the bailout of U.S. investment banks Bear Stearns in 2008 and the collapse of Lehman Brothers the same year.
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"I think it's a wrong comparison to go with Bear Stearns or Lehman," said Mark McCombe, chairman for Asia Pacific at BlackRock Asset Management, which reported $4.32 trillion in assets under management at the end of 2013.
"What the Chinese are doing is trying to bring some market discipline to the domestic economy. Are we going to see more defaults? Probably. Is that healthy for an economy in the long run? Yes, because it tells investors that you need to be more discerning and think about what you're going into [and] that there isn't always that state guarantee," he added.
Earlier this year, BlackRock was reported to be bidding for a stake in bad debt manager Huarong Asset Management, a firm that was created by China's Ministry of Finance to manage bad debt along with three other firms, according to Reuters.
McCombe did not comment on whether BlackRock was bidding for the firm.
"It's not our typical business model and not one we would typically look at," he told CNBC.
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