When China’s bond issuers run into trouble, investors face an increasingly tough task in extracting any returns, the Financial Times reported. Bond defaults across the world’s second-biggest economy are rising, with more borrowers failing either to repay creditors’ initial investments, or make regular interest payments. Typically, some investors can find a way to hold on to so-called distressed debt and recover scraps of cash. Specialist investors also buy this debt on the cheap, in what can be a lucrative if risky strategy. Now, though, returns are shrinking.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has ordered insolvency resolution process against a company, in probably the first such case in India where the petitioner that approached the bankruptcy court alleging payment default is a firm that had earlier provided it services on insolvency resolution, The Economic Times reported.

Thailand’s central bank will take further steps to ease restrictions on capital outflows in coming months as it tries to curb gains in the baht, Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said, Bloomberg News reported. The Bank of Thailand plans to increase the amount of proceeds exporters can hold overseas, liberalize foreign-currency deposit accounts and take steps to enable insurance companies to invest more abroad, Veerathai said in an interview Wednesday at his Bangkok office.

A Chinese fertilizer maker is being watched closely after it became a rare state-owned company to initiate a court-led debt restructuring, that could result in losses for some of its onshore creditors, Bloomberg News reported. Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co. is a state-owned firm located in sparsely-populated province in northwest China that mainly produces potash. A local court in the province threw a lifeline to Qinghai Salt Lake in September by accepting a creditor’s request to restructure the firm amid its financial troubles.

Audit group KPMG said on Wednesday Australia’s McWilliams Wines Group had gone into voluntary administration and that it was seeking capital or a buyer for the winemaker, which has been struggling to pay creditors amid changing drinking trends, Reuters reported. The decision comes in the wake of deadly bush fires that have engulfed large swathes of Australia, especially the state of New South Wales where the company’s vineyards are located. McWilliams Wine was not immediately available for comment on whether the fires are a contributing factor.

Religare Finvest Ltd., an Indian financier sanctioned by the nation’s central bank, is “hopeful” of revamping 58.5 billion rupees ($815 million) of debt by March, the shadow lender said, Bloomberg News reported. Religare is in talks with its creditors to retain 51% of the obligations as that can be serviced by the company’s cash flows, while tagging the rest as “unsustainable debt,” the company said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. The firm expects to pay the principal on the “unsustainable” loans over a period of time, Religare said without giving a time frame.

A ministerial panel headed by home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday approved the drafts of expression of interest (EoI) and share purchase agreement (SPA) for the privatisation of debt-ridden Air India, but analysts were still sceptical about the deal being concluded in the current financial year, The Financial Express reported. The EoI will be issued later this month. The AI Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM) headed by Shah also approved a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) as well as another debt restructuring plan for the airline, sources said, without elaborating.

Chinese property developers kicked off the new year with a strong pipeline of bond issuance, in particular for long-tenor notes, taking advantage of easier regulatory approvals and robust market demand, Reuters reported. Analysts said there were signs of a slight loosening in granting quotas to developers with offshore refinancing needs, but cautioned that credit risks remained with property sales expected to be flat this year.

Thailand's cabinet on Tuesday approved loan measures worth 260 billion baht (6.54 billion pounds)to help small and medium-size companies, affected by weak exports amid global trade tensions and a strong currency, a finance ministry official said, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. That includes soft loans worth 195 billion baht and 65 billion baht in loan guarantees to be arranged by state banks, Lavaron Sangsnit, head of the finance ministry's fiscal policy office, told a briefing.

The race to find a rescuer for a struggling Indian shadow bank at the center of an industry crisis has narrowed, Bloomberg News reported. Altico Capital India Ltd. is one of the latest caught up in the nation’s shadow banking crisis that started in 2018, and had been courting suitors. One of them, Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd., won’t make a binding bid for Altico by a Jan. 15 deadline, people familiar with the matter said. In India, non-bank financiers play a crucial role in funding everything from condominium construction to purchases of personal goods like cars and phones.