The Deutsche Bank has become the first foreign bank to purchase non-performing fixed assets from a Chinese state-owned commercial bank, the Economic Information Daily reported on Tuesday.

The assets with an aggregated book value of 1.2 billion yuan (about 145 million US dollars) were put up for sale to the public last spring by the China Construction Bank.

The assets comprise real estate projects including office buildings, shopping malls, hotels, residential buildings, factory buildings and unused land, all located in northeast China's Heilongjiang and Liaoning provinces as well as in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Sources with the Deutsche Bank called this deal "of great importance" as it set an example for foreign banks to help the Chinese banking industry solve non-performing assets, said the newspaper.

Last February, three packages of non-performing assets with a combined book value of four billion yuan (483.68 million US dollars) were put up for public sale by the China Construction Bank.

Source: Xinhua