A unit of China’s state-owned conglomerate CITIC has filed a request for antitrust approval to take full control over Czech assets of troubled private Chinese group CEFC China Energy, Czech competition watchdog UOHS said on Wednesday. The Czech assets involved are the CEFC Europe firm, holding interests in hotels, real estate, engineering and a sports club and Lapasan, through which CEFC holds a majority stake in beer brewer Lobkowicz, Reuters reported. The UOHS did not mention Czech airline Travel Service in which a China-based CEFC entity holds 49.9 percent interest.

Who’s at fault for Videocon Industries Ltd.’s 39 billion rupees ($579 million) debt pile? The Indian maker of consumer appliances is casting the blame on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to ban cash, the nation’s top court and the Brazilian government, Bloomberg News reported. A bankruptcy court admitted an insolvency petition filed by creditors, led by State Bank of India against Videocon, and ordered debt reorganizers to take over its management. That prompted the company to file an appeal to wrest back control, according to an exchange filing on Tuesday.

Beijing’s determination to tame China’s soaring debt levels has won plaudits from bullish observers who believe the government is finally tackling its key economic problem. Why, then, has there been so little stress in the country’s bond market? Defaults on Chinese bonds might appear to have risen sharply this year, in volume terms, The Wall Street Journal reported. A total of 13 issuers have defaulted on a combined 20.2 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) worth of corporate bonds in China’s domestic market in 2018, up 41% from the same period last year, when 11 issuers had defaulted.

The surge in Chinese company bond defaults has overseas investors deciding they need to take a closer look, Bloomberg News reported. Edmund Goh, an Asia fixed-income investment manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments, says he’s planning to take more trips to China to get intelligence that’s hard to gain from afar. Investors can get to see among others, people who work in risk departments at banks, who can tell them how they’re classifying loans, he said. Or corporate treasury executives who may shed some light on their use of shadow banking financing.

From overburdened tribunals to some bizarre judgments and costly delays, India’s new bankruptcy code has had its share of teething troubles. But the law, which will decide the fate of $210 billion in bad loans, has also broken new ground, a Bloomberg View reported. Take the most recent tweak, for instance. Hapless homebuyers left without apartments by debt-stressed builders will have their status raised to that of financial creditors. That’s highly unusual by global standards. It’s a bold innovation, worthy of emulation by other rapidly urbanizing economies.

Hainan Airlines Holding Co. plans to raise as much as 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) by selling shares to investors, including an arm of Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings Pte., as part of a restructuring planned by the unit of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co, Bloomberg News reported. The Haikou, Hainan-based carrier is selling up to 20 percent of its Shanghai-listed shares to 10 investors, the company said in a statement on June 9. Proceeds from the sale will be used to fund plane purchases, aviation training, maintenance and airport business.

As policy makers tighten the liquidity screws in China, what has been a handy window for companies to raise cash could now be closing, Bloomberg News reported. May capped the fourth straight month of contraction in outstanding loans that publicly listed companies got from securities firms through pledging holdings of stock, Moody’s Investors Service data show. While that still left the total, at 1.53 trillion yuan ($240 billion), near a record, it’s been the longest run of declines since the epic 2015 stock-market collapse.

China’s efforts to connect the world’s third-biggest bond market with the international financial system are hitting dual headwinds -- a climb in global borrowing costs, and the country’s own campaign to reduce financial leverage, Bloomberg News reported. The dynamics have contributed to defaults by 12 bond issuers in 2018 through June 4, after 18 for the whole of 2017, according to Fitch Ratings. Firms from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to Fidelity International are warning to prepare for more.

When other acquisitive Chinese groups were insisting they were not an arm of the state, China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group was making the opposite case: trying to convince bankers and investors it belonged to the government. But the company’s recent default on a payment for a $350m bond, and its withdrawal from a $5.2bn property deal earlier in the year, was a sign that its state backing was not as strong as advertised, the Financial Times reported. The matter is sensitive for investors in Chinese bonds.

India’s central bank raised its main lending rate Wednesday, after inflation picked up following a recent surge in crude-oil prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary-policy committee, headed by Gov. Urjit Patel, raised its repurchase rate to 6.25% from 6%. Equity markets, bonds and the Indian rupee were little changed in response. “This wasn’t a total surprise,” said Sujan Hajra, chief economist at Anand Rathi Securities. Still, nine out of 11 economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had predicted the RBI would leave the rate unchanged.