When Ofo launched in Beijing in 2015, it had seemingly everything going for it: a brilliant idea, a stash of cash and impeccable Communist party connections. But just four years later, the bike-sharing service has been reduced to empty offices, graveyards of disused bright yellow bikes and virtual queues of disenchanted customers demanding their deposits back, the Financial Times reported. Venerable investors, including tech giant Alibaba, are braced for writedowns and the company’s founder, Dai Wei, has warned that bankruptcy is on the horizon.
Resources Per Country
- Afghanistan
- Armenia
- Australia
- Azerbaijan
- Bangladesh
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- Cook Islands
- Cyprus
- Fiji
- Georgia
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Micronesia
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- New Zealand
- North Korea
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vietnam
After sliding for six straight years, borrowing costs of Chinese companies from the offshore syndicated loan market are expected to grow in 2019 as their own funding rates rise and defaults from the country surge, according to a Bloomberg survey, Bloomberg News reported. With Chinese offshore syndicated loan costs still near a decade-low, lenders are seeking higher pricing to cushion margins squeezed by rising competition. Such demand is getting louder as default risks deepen amid a faltering economy and trade tensions with the U.S.
In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that many global funds have pushed for India to resolve its bankruptcy cases faster, but some investors are finding opportunities in the delays. As Indian lenders seek to offload soured debt worth billions of dollars, overseas firms such as Cantor Fitzgerald and SC Lowy see the chance for investors to reap returns from delays in the bankruptcy process.
India’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected petitions challenging the country’s bankruptcy laws, including a rule that bans owners of insolvent firms from bidding to buy back assets auctioned as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported. The ruling upheld fledgling bankruptcy and insolvency rules and is expected to pave the way for banks to recover billions of dollars from bankrupt firms mired in litigation, lawyers said.
Pakistan’s finance minister announced a range of measures on Wednesday to narrow fiscal and trade deficits as prime minister Imran Khan prepares to present the government’s case to the IMF for a loan to rebuild confidence in the country’s economy, the Financial Times reported. In a speech in the lower house of parliament, Asad Umar unveiled a cut in import duty on industrial raw materials to raise industrial productivity and help ease a chronic energy crisis that has caused repeated power outages and gas supply interruptions.
First, it was the IL&FS Group that ran out of money. Now that the bankrupt Indian infrastructure lender-operator has been sequestered from creditors, the country’s securitization industry is on borrowed time, a Bloomberg View reported. It all began on Tuesday with S&P Global’s Indian affiliate, Crisil, downgrading Jharkhand Road Projects Implementation Co.’s annuity-backed bonds to D after it skipped interest and principal payments. It’s a strategic default on an instrument rated AA just last week. The borrower had money.
Cash-strapped Jet Airways Ltd has flown straight into a storm, resulting in a major setback for India’s largest full-service airline that could shake up the country’s aviation industry, Reuters reported. Jet, which has debt exceeding 80 billion rupees ($1.12 billion) as of September-end, has been steadily losing market share to its rival and low-cost carrier IndiGo, which is owned by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, Jet’s second-largest shareholder, is now in talks with creditors for a deal that could help the airline back on its feet.
The parent company of one of Turkey’s largest food producers is in talks with lenders to restructure a portion of its $2 billion debt pile, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Anadolu Birlik Holding AS wants to extend maturities on loans it took out to finance investments in the energy sector, the people said, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private, Bloomberg News reported. The company is seeking to restructure less than half of its total debt and the negotiations may be finalized within the next two months, one of the people said.
In the latest sign of turmoil in China’s once booming peer-to-peer lending sector, around 80 investors in failed lender Xinhehui protested outside the Hangzhou headquarters of a related company on Tuesday, demanding a $330 million bailout, Bloomberg News reported. The investors voiced their fury and scuffled with police at the entrance to the headquarters of Meidu Energy Corp., which owns about a third of the failed lender.
To have one airline limping forward on the brink of bankruptcy may be regarded as a misfortune. To have two looks like carelessness. That’s the fundamental problem for India’s aviation industry, home to the critically ill Jet Airways India Ltd. and its state-owned rival Air India Ltd., which more or less died in 2012 but has been kept on life support thanks to ongoing infusions of taxpayer cash, a Bloomberg View reported. Facing collapse, Jet has been trying to restructure its debt and seeking bailout money from founder Naresh Goyal and leading shareholder Etihad Airways PJSC.