Anti-government protests have prompted investors to pull some $5bn out of Hong Kong since April, according to the Bank of England, the Financial Times reported. That amount is equivalent to 1.25 per cent of the gross domestic product of the Asia financial hub, the UK central bank said in its biannual Financial Stability Report. The bank cited data from EPFR Global, Refinitiv and its own calculations. However, the $5bn in outflows from investment funds since April is modest in the context of Hong Kong’s monetary system.

A tribunal has started insolvency proceedings in the case of Chennai-based wind turbine manufacturer ReGen Powertech, emphasising the dire times the wind energy sector is passing through, The Economic Times reported. The National Company Law Tribunal ordered the commencement of a corporate insolvency resolution process of ReGen Powertech on December 9, the interim resolution professional said in a notice dated December 13 in the Times of India. “This does not come as a surprise… They have not been able to ramp up their order book since 2017,” said an industry expert.

The insolvency resolution of Ruchi Soya under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is likely to be completed on December 16, a source told CNBC-TV18. The dues of lenders to Ruchi Soya are also expected to be settled on the same day, the sources added. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), in July, cleared Patanajali Ayurveda’s takeover of Ruchi Soya under the IBC, and approved its resolution plan in September, moneycontrol.com reported. Patanjali secured funds from the State Bank of India, Union Bank, Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank and Allahabad Bank before.

Investors have warmed to Pakistan since the government secured a $6bn bailout from the IMF in July, removing any immediate threat of sovereign default, the Financial Times reported. MSCI’s Pakistan equities index is up more than a third from its August lows, compared with a gain of just over 10 per cent for MSCI’s flagship emerging market index. Foreign investors have made a tentative return to the country’s local debt market, buying $1.2bn of local currency government bonds since July after staying away for most of the past two years.

Promoters of Essar Steel are not yet off the hook despite banks getting large parts of their dues back, The Times of India reported. The Lakshmi Mittal-owned metals group ArcelorMittal last weekend transferred over Rs 39,000 crore to lenders for the steel company he won after a legal battle that lasted over two years. Another Rs 2,500 crore will be repaid from the steel company’s internal accruals.

The favored funding source of China’s real-estate developers is under scrutiny in one of the country’s largest urban areas, posing a threat to a sector that has stretched creative financing to its limits, the Wall Street Journal reported. On Friday, the city of Xi’an in central China opened a consultation process on instituting an escrow system that would ensure developers hold on to funds worth 1.2 times the cost of building a new property when booking a presale.

A commodity trader has become China’s first state-owned enterprise to inflict losses on dollar bondholders in two decades, according to S&P Global Ratings, a new landmark in a rising wave of defaults, the Wall Street Journal reported. Chinese authorities are allowing more companies to renege on their debts, where once they would have found ways to engineer bailouts. So far defaults have mostly been concentrated in credit-starved private companies, but even some groups with state backing are now failing to repay creditors as promised.