Whichever way you look at it, it’s been an annus horribilis for many big name retailers. In 2019, we witnessed the collapse of a slew of Aussie favourites, with some international players also folding in recent months, news.com.au reported. So where did it all go wrong for these iconic companies – and what does 2020 hold for our struggling retail sector? According to Queensland University of Technology retail expert Dr Gary Mortimer, there are two main factors that caused the downfall of many businesses in 2019 – changing consumer tastes and “overcrowded, hyper-competitive markets”.

Defaults across Asia may be headed even higher next year, with trouble seen especially in China and India, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported on a Bloomberg News story. Many investors expect fewer bailouts by the Chinese government after it recently let commodities trader Tewoo Group default in the biggest failure on a dollar bond by a state-owned firm in two decades. Companies in the region have been on a buying spree fueled by debt. Those factors could make things even worse in 2020 after China onshore defaults rose to a record in 2019.

Shares of Jet Airways (India) were locked in 5 per cent upper circuit for the seventh straight day at Rs 28.25 on the BSE on Thursday as the creditors of the shuttered airline decided to seek fresh initial bids for the airline, Business Standard reported. The stock is trading at its highest level since September 30, 2019. The Committee of Creditors (CoC) would seek fresh Expression of Interest (EoI), according to a regulatory filing on Monday.

The former head of a regional bank rescued by Chinese authorities this year is set to spend the rest of his life behind bars after a court convicted him of corruption and other crimes on Thursday, the Financial Times reported. Jiang Xiyun, former chairman of Hengfeng Bank, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve — a punishment usually commuted to life in prison after the reprieve — by a court in eastern Shandong province, where the troubled financial institution is based.

Indian initial public offerings tumbled to a 4-year low by value in 2019 as the economy slowed, but some analysts are hoping for better in 2020 on the back of potential government reforms likely to boost stock markets, Reuters reported. Funds raised by Indian IPOs fell to just $2.8 billion this year, the lowest in four years, according to data from Refinitiv. In 2017, the proceeds hit a record $11.7 billion before falling to $5.5 billion in 2018. “2019 has been the worst year from an IPO market perspective,” said Sandip Khetan, a partner at consultancy EY.

India’s market regulator on Thursday fined two leading credit rating agencies 2.5-million-rupees ($35,058.20) each for their failure to carry out proper due diligence when assigning credit ratings to an indebted shadow bank, Reuters reported.

Growing problems of corporate governance are emerging at India’s private banks and all lenders are at risk of rising default rates even though asset quality has improved overall, the Reserve Bank of India said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. In its annual report on Trends and Progress of Banking in India, the central bank highlighted the possibility of defaults rising in the retail lending space after the economy slowed to 4.5% in the July-September quarter, its weakest pace since 2013.

China’s policy makers will unveil a three-year action plan in early 2020 on the reform of state enterprises, with an aim to improve the performance of the sector and create world-class champions, according to state-owned newspapers, Bloomberg News reported. The plan will tighten how the performances of state firms, often referred to as SOEs, are evaluated, and also seek “new breakthroughs” in introducing more strategic private-sector investors, Hao Peng, head of the country’s state assets manager, was cited in the China Securities Journal as saying.

China has a mounting debt problem. Not just over-leveraged companies, but a rapid build-up on household balance sheets that is hitting records. You can blame youth for a borrowing binge that, if left unchecked, could be China’s next credit bubble, a Bloomberg View reported. Household debt hit levels of 57% of gross domestic product in the third quarter, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Phan, more than double just 27% in 2010. Fitch Ratings said in July that it was surging at a pace roughly double nominal GDP growth.

In a related story, the Financial Times reported that corporate defaults in China surged to a record high in 2019, raising new questions over how policymakers in Beijing will manage mounting financial distress among large private and state-owned companies. Onshore corporate defaults hit Rmb130bn ($18.6bn) in the final weeks of the year, breaking the record of Rmb122bn last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as economic growth fell to a three-decade low.