Kunming International Trust Co, established in 1993, is a Chinese trust company based in Kunming, Yunnan. It is a relatively small firm in China which has several billion yuan (several hundred million dollars) of assets under management but is the largest in the southwest province of Yunnan. Kunming Trust is currently controlled by the financial authority of the Kunming municipal government, which has agreed to clear the trust firm's debt.
Since 2006 Kunming Trust has been one of many to be targeted by the financial authorities to bolster China's trust companies, which were hit over the past decade by a series of bankruptcies and scandals. Kunming Trust was ordered by China's central bank to carry out an internal overhaul after its operations ran into trouble, due partly to failed investments early this decade that involved the misuse of clients' assets, according to reports in China's official media.
In July 2008, the Australian bank Macquarie Group planned to buy just under 20 percent of Kunming Trust. After spending over a year in negotiations, Macquarie is expected to hold management control and have the right to appoint senior executives at Kunming Trust, and it will work with other new domestic investors to restructure the firm.