London-based Nithia Capital Resources Advisors LLP is seeking to acquire troubled Singapore commodity trader Agritrade International Pte Ltd (AIPL) and its shares in its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, according to a source familiar with the matter, Reuters reported. AIPL, whose businesses span palm oil and coal, is undergoing a court-appointed restructuring after it collapsed earlier this year amid fraud allegations. It owes $1.55 billion, including $983 billion to at least 20 banks.

Moody’s has clashed with the UN after putting five countries on review for a downgrade in recent weeks, saying that a G20-backed debt suspension scheme poses risks to private creditors, the Financial Times reported. The rating agency took action against Ethiopia, Pakistan, Cameroon, Senegal and the Ivory Coast, after the countries opted into a G20-backed initiative that allows them to freeze official bilateral debt repayments due this year to member nations and members of the Paris Club, a group representing major credit countries.

A keenly watched Indian shadow bank insolvency process has been delayed, highlighting how the virus pandemic is impeding the nation’s nascent bankruptcy regime, Bloomberg News reported. Payments to creditors from Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., whose default in September 2018 triggered a lingering credit crisis in India, are likely to spill over to the financial year beginning April 2021, management said in a call on Monday. It had previously aimed to resolve a bulk of those by this month.

Some of the world’s largest developing economies are set to face a fiscal crisis in the coming years unless they can roll back huge increases in public spending enacted in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, analysts have warned, the Financial Times reported. The economic downturn caused by the pandemic, combined with rising healthcare spending to tackle the spread of the virus, have caused budget deficits to soar in many countries. They will have to face the choice of risking public unrest by cutting back on spending, or negotiating with investors to restructure their debts.

Southeast Asian low-cost carriers, a key growth engine for planemakers and leasing companies for a decade before the pandemic, are faltering financially as demand plunges, raising questions over whether they can replace and double their fleets, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Auditors for Malaysia's AirAsia Group Bhd and Vietnam's VietJet Aviation JSC are concerned about cashflows and funding, while Indonesia's Lion Air has put the brakes on a planned flotation.

Australia faces an avalanche of business failures in its transport and hospitality sectors after government subsidies end in September, insolvency lawyers and economists say, while some argue that so-called ‘zombie’ firms should be allowed to fail, Reuters reported. About 240,000 businesses in tourism and professional services are at high risk of failing during the September ‘fiscal cliff’, when widespread wage subsidies are set to end, economists at Deloitte said on Monday.

India’s Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) said on Monday it expected to resolve about 57% of its near trillion rupee ($13.35 billion) debt pile even as the pandemic delayed the resolution process in some of the group companies, Reuters reported. About 50% of the debt is expected to be resolved by March 2021, the indebted infrastructure lender’s board said in a progress report, with 18% already addressed as of June end. The board had said in an update in October that it aimed to resolve 50% of the debt by March this year.

Bondholders in Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd, in administration since April, on Monday submitted an updated proposal to take over the struggling company that rivals the approach from Bain Capital selected by administrator Deloitte, Reuters reported. The new proposal from bondholders Broad Peak Investment Advisers and Tor Investment Management is “substantially the same” as a recapitalisation pitch for Australia’s second-biggest airline they lodged last month, a spokesman said in a statement.

The Group of 20 leading economies this weekend may have to consider expanding help for the world’s poorest countries, three months after agreeing to provide temporary debt relief, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage nations, Bloomberg News reported. Central bankers and finance ministers from the G-20 will hold a virtual meeting on Saturday to discuss and coordinate phased efforts to spur a global economic recovery. Looking beyond just debt relief efforts would be part of that.

Bank of Japan policymakers debated the risk of the country sliding back into deflation but stopped short of advocating stronger steps to prevent firms from going insolvent due to the coronavirus pandemic, minutes of their June meeting showed, Reuters reported. With the impact of COVID-19 likely to last for a prolonged period, more companies could face the risk of insolvency even if they received immediate liquidity support, some on the BOJ’s nine-member board were quoted as saying.