Two Chinese companies failed to repay bonds worth a combined half a billion dollars on Monday, underscoring rising debt risks in the highly leveraged nation as the economy slows, Bloomberg News reported. Peking University Founder Group was unable to secure sufficient funding to repay a 270-day, 2 billion yuan ($285 million) bond, according to a company filing to the National Interbank Funding Center. Tunghsu Optoelectronic Technology Co. failed to deliver repayment on both interest and principal on a 1.7 billion yuan bond, according to Shanghai Clearing House.

Rating agencies have soured on India Inc as a credit crunch leaves businesses struggling to raise funds and pay debts, pushing default rates to their highest in five years, the Financial Times reported. Moody’s has a negative outlook on more than half of the non-financial companies it provides ratings on, its highest level in 10 years. The New York-based agency, which in early November downgraded its credit outlook for India to negative, has lowered its outlook for oil and gas companies such as Bharat Petroleum and information technology groups Infosys and Tata Consultancy

It turns out trade wars are not just painful but also very loud, so much so that they can drown out some fairly consequential things, Bloomberg News reported. One of those is debt. And in the Chinese context, we should note that there is a lot of it and it has increased very quickly. Bloomberg Economics estimates that the country’s total debt ballooned about five-fold in the decade through 2018 to roughly $35 trillion.

The number of Chinese companies failing to make payments will continue to rise in the year ahead as economic growth sputters and the government attempts to rein in support to indebted companies, according to Moody’s Investors Service, Bloomberg News reported. The credit ratings company expects 40-50 new defaults in 2020, up from 35 this year, according to Ivan Chung, head of greater China credit research and analysis at Moody’s. He expects the total value of defaults would be below 200 billion yuan ($28 billion), representing less than 1% of the size of China’s bond market.

Having just signed a deal with Middle Eastern suitor Utico FZC, crisis-hit Hyflux Ltd. is facing a fresh challenge -- how to allocate S$40 million ($29 million) of fees among restructuring advisers, Bloomberg News reported. The Singapore water treatment company needs to get its advisers to agree on how to split the pot, or Utico has the right to walk away, according to the deal terms. The problem was discussed in a court hearing in Singapore on Friday. Lawyers and consultants have been working for more than 1 1/2 years on Hyflux, the nation’s most high-profile debt restructuring.

The Reserve Bank of India has filed an application to begin bankruptcy proceedings against shadow lender Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL), it said here on Friday, Reuters reported. DHFL, once one of India’s top shadow lenders, owes its creditors - which include mutual funds, banks, pension funds, insurance firms and retail investors - close to 1 trillion rupees ($13.93 billion). The country’s shadow banking sector, a key source of credit to millions, has been plagued by a credit crunch triggered by the collapse of lending major IL&FS last year.

The Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has directed the Department of Telecommunications not to cancel or terminate the telecom license and spectrum granted to Aircel Ltd, Bloomberg Quint reported. Aircel, which had telecom license and spectrum in nine telecom circles, is undergoing insolvency resolution process. It had filed a voluntary insolvency petition in March 2018 citing operational difficulties and owes around Rs 27,000 crore to its creditors and vendors.

Turkey’s BDDK banking watchdog changed loan classification regulations so that banks are able to remove from their books “Group 5” classified non-performing loans (NPL), marking another step to clean up bad debt from last year’s currency crisis, Reuters reported. The regulatory change was published in Turkey’s Official Gazette on Wednesday. The move “allows Turkish banks to remove Group 5 non-performing loans from their NPL books should the borrower default and there be no possibility of recovery for the foreseeable future,” said Seker Invest, an investment firm.

Troubled banks in China are struggling to raise funds as concerns over the health of the financial system grow and confidence in state-led bailouts falters. China’s banking system is facing its greatest challenge in nearly 20 years after years of runaway growth and mounting bad debt levels, which have topped 40 per cent of loans at some small lenders, the Financial Times reported.

Troubled Singapore water treatment firm Hyflux Ltd. has entered a restructuring deal with Middle Eastern utility Utico FZC. Under the agreement, Hyflux will get investment totaling S$400 million ($293 million) from Utico, according to an exchange filing, Yahoo! Finance reported on a Bloomberg News story. The pact caps drawn out negotiations between the two companies. Hyflux, Singapore’s highest profile debt restructuring, had been looking for a white knight investor after a deal with Indonesian consortium SM Investments fell through in April.