Bank Indonesia’s unprecedented move to buy about $27 billion in bonds directly from the government may prove to be an exception rather than the norm in emerging markets, Bloomberg News reported. With the world economy in crisis and Modern Monetary Theory gaining attention, governments are being pressured to spend more and turn to their central banks to print money to foot the bill. But when it comes to scooping up that debt, most central banks are doing it in the secondary market. Three weeks on, currency and bond markets appear to have given Indonesia a pass on its direct financing foray.

Utico FZC, the Middle Eastern suitor of embattled Singaporean water treatment company Hyflux Ltd., said it has submitted a binding offer to restructure the group’s debt, Bloomberg News reported. The move caps a prolonged negotiation for one of the highest-profile restructurings in the city-state, after Hyflux said last year that it had received a non-binding letter of intent. The latest binding offer will remain open for acceptance until July 31, according to a filing Friday with the Singapore Exchange. Hyflux’s collapse has left some 34,000 retail investors in the lurch.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will pay $2.5 billion to the government of Malaysia for its role in the alleged theft of billions of dollars from a government investment fund, bringing the Wall Street bank close to ending one of the worst scandals in its history, The Wall Street Journal reported. Goldman also guaranteed the recovery of $1.4 billion in assets allegedly stolen from the fund, according to the agreement announced separately by the bank and Malaysia’s Finance Ministry on Friday.

British Steel’s Chinese owner has had its bid to acquire a factory in France rejected by a court as concerns grow in some European capitals about companies from the Asian superpower snapping up assets, the Financial Times reported. Jingye Group, which saved the UK’s second-largest steelmaker from bankruptcy earlier this year, was attempting to wrest control of a small mill in north-east France that belonged to British Steel.

The Pacific island nation of Tonga has asked Beijing to restructure its large bilateral debt load, the government said on Thursday, as the pandemic upends the region’s tourism revenues and an onerous Chinese loan repayment schedule looms, Reuters reported. Tonga is one of the biggest Chinese debtors in the South Pacific, with its financial reliance dating back to loans taken more than a decade ago to rebuild its capital, Nuku’alofa, after riots. The small economy, largely dependent on external aid and remittances from Tongans living abroad, has since taken out additional loans.

Australia’s government is being sued for not adequately disclosing the impact of climate change on its sovereign debt, Bloomberg Green reported. The class action filed in the Federal Court in Melbourne on Wednesday alleges the Australian Office of Financial Management and the Treasury have misled or deceived investors by failing to disclose climate change alongside other financial risks in its exchange-traded bonds, according to court documents. The lawsuit seeks promotion of the debt to be halted until the disclosures are made.

Singapore bank OCBC is seeking a court-appointed supervisor to manage shipping firm Xihe Holdings Pte Ltd and four of its subsidiaries, four sources with knowledge of the court filing said, Reuters reported. Xihe Holdings is part of the troubled Lim family business empire, which also includes oil trader Hin Leong Trading and fleet manager Ocean Tankers (Pte) Ltd, both of which were placed under court-appointed supervisors earlier this year.

The debt burden currently faced by TH Plantations Bhd (THP) cannot be resolved via asset sale but rather a restructuring of its debt, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Ahmad Marzuk Shaary, The Edge reported. Speaking in the Dewan Rakyat today, Ahmad Marzuk raised the suggestion on grounds that the bulk of THP’s debt goes to parent Lembaga Tabung Haji, and that asset sale will negatively impact THP’s cash flow rather than improve it. “About 75% of the loans by THP came from Tabung Haji.

The Olympic cauldron will remain unlit and its stadium empty on Friday as the virus-triggered postponement of the Tokyo Games leaves disappointed fans wondering if it’s still worth holding on to tickets and hotel operators fretting over thousands of vacant rooms, Bloomberg News reported. Japan will still mark the day originally scheduled for the opening ceremony with a national holiday.

A growing number of Asian firms are delaying bond repayments or seeking debt swaps amid mounting stress, boosting uncertainty for debtholders, Bloomberg News reported. Flagship carrier PT Garuda Indonesia and Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group Co. have extended the maturity on their dollar bonds in recent months, while Chinese business-park developer Yida China Holdings Ltd. conducted a debt exchange earlier this year. Indonesian builder PT Modernland Realty’s bondholders last week agreed to lengthen the maturity of its rupiah notes.