Asia

A group of Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. bondholders is close to signing non-disclosure agreements with the developer in a move that would pave the way for discussions around a potential financing deal for the beleaguered firm, Bloomberg News reported. The creditor group is being advised by Lazard Ltd. An announcement about the agreements could come as early as Thursday morning in Hong Kong, one of the people said. Lazard is seeking more bondholders to join the group. The signing of NDAs is a crucial step as it would allow creditors to access data and information they haven’t yet seen.

HNA Group Co. has officially handed over control of its core airline operations to Liaoning Fangda Group Industrial Co., marking the end of an era for the Chinese conglomerate as it continues to restructure one of the country’s biggest piles of corporate debt, Bloomberg News reported. Gu Gang, head of a government taskforce in charge of HNA’s restructuring, will no longer serve as the group’s leading secretary for the Communist Party after the key handover of Hainan Airlines Holding Co., the company said in a statement on social media Wednesday.

The RBI has cited Reliance Capital’s default to Yes Bank in respect of dues amounting to Rs 1,417 crore as a key default while initiating insolvency proceedings against the Anil Ambani group finance company, the Times of India reported. The National Company Law Tribunal on Monday admitted the insolvency proceedings and announced a moratorium in terms of the bankruptcy code.

More than 11,000 people were declared bankrupt in Malaysia since the pandemic struck in March 2020, the New Straits Times reported. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department(Parliament & Law), Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told the Dewan Rakyat that the Insolvency Department recorded 11,207 cases of bankruptcy between March 2020 and October 2021. He said that there were 6,344 cases recorded between March to Dec 2020 and 4,863 cases recorded between Jan to Sept 2021.

While Covid-19 killed millions of people around the globe, deaths at STMicro’s facility in the Malaysian district of Muar were substantially higher than averages in the rest of the country and the world. One in 1,100 people in Malaysia died from the virus since the start of the pandemic, according to the country’s Ministry of Health, while it was at least one in 210 at the plant, according to Bloomberg News reporting. STMicro declined to comment on the specific number of workers who died at the Muar location.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak lost an appeal against his conviction last year on charges related to his role in one of the world’s largest financial scandals, dealing a setback to the disgraced ex-leader amid a resurgence of his political clout, the Wall Street Journal reported. Malaysia’s appellate court struck down the appeal on Wednesday, upholding Mr. Najib’s conviction last year on all seven of the charges in question, including abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.

Some offshore bondholders of China Evergrande Group did not receive coupon payments by the end of a 30-day grace period, five people with knowledge of the matter said, pushing the cash-strapped property developer closer to formal default, Reuters reported. Adding to a liquidity crisis in China's once bubbling property market, smaller peer Kaisa Group Holdings (1638.HK) was also unlikely to meet its $400 million offshore debt deadline on Tuesday.

As many as 421 cases involving a realisable value of Rs 2.55 lakh crore were resolved and 1,149 cases having a liquidation value of Rs 52,036 crore went for liquidation under the insolvency law till this September, the Indian government said on Tuesday, the Economic Times reported. Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) is conducted as per the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). As of September 30, a total of 4,708 CIRPs were initiated under the IBC.

The Bank of Japan is likely to narrow the scope of its Covid aid, but keep it in place for longer in an attempt to focus the measures on businesses that still need help, says a former top official, Bloomberg News reported. “A partial extension is possible,” said Eiji Maeda, who led the central bank’s pandemic crisis response before stepping down from his post as executive director in May last year. “Funding is becoming an issue that’s focused on some businesses and some sectors.

The Sri Lankan government campaign toward organic farming lasted only seven months, but farmers and agriculture experts blame the policy for a sharp drop in crop yields and spiraling prices that are worsening the country’s growing economic woes and leading to fears of food shortages, the New York Times reported. Prices for some foodstuffs, like rice, have risen by nearly one-third compared with a year ago, according to Sri Lanka’s central bank. The prices of vegetables like tomatoes and carrots have risen to five times their year-ago levels.