The booth of the China Huarong Asset Management Co at an international finance expo in Beijing. DA WEI/CHINA DAILY

BEIJING - A major Chinese financial asset management company, China Huarong Asset Management Co Ltd., reported a profit surge in 2015 due to sound growth from its distressed asset management core business.

Net profits attributable to equity holders of the company totaled 14.48 billion yuan ($2.2 billion), surging 35.9 percent from a year earlier, according to its annual business report.

Total income of the group increased 47.6 percent to 75.39 billion yuan last year. As of the end of 2015, total assets of the group amounted to 866.55 billion yuan, up 44.3 percent from the previous year.

Huarong is one of China's four State-owned asset management companies set up in 1999 to tackle bad loans, the other three being Cinda, Great Wall and Orient.

In October 2015, China Huarong was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.