HNA Group Co.’s bonds are rebounding as the Chinese conglomerate steps up asset sales. But its debt remains large despite efforts to pay it down, prompting some observers to recommend selling the notes. HNA and its subsidiaries face record bond repayments in the second half. That puts even more of a focus on the group’s total debt, which rose to at least 637.5 billion yuan ($101 billion) by November, as it releases results as soon as this week, Bloomberg News reported.

How bad would liquidity have to get for one of China’s largest companies to dump about $13 billion in assets in less than four months? Investors may find out and get a sense of whether the disposals are enough when debt-laden HNA Group Co., the once-high-flying conglomerate, releases its results as soon as this week, Bloomberg News reported. The 2017 annual report will provide the most extensive details yet of HNA’s financial distress before it began offloading property from Hong Kong to New York, and selling shares in companies from Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. to Deutsche Bank AG in 2018.

India’s revamped bankruptcy process is in full swing and investors from Blackstone Group LP to Oaktree Capital Group LLC are salivating over an estimated $210 billion of stressed assets that are up for grabs, Bloomberg News reported. But the courtrooms handling the thousands of bankruptcies are lacking a key component: Judges. Ten benches with a combined 26 judges and technical staff are hearing more than 2,500 insolvency cases, the latest official data show. Based on the workload a year ago, researchers estimated India needs about 80 benches over five years.

Dogus, one of Turkey’s biggest companies, has neither denied nor confirmed widespread reports that it is restructuring its debt, the Financial Times reported. But economists and analysts fear the company could be a canary in the coal mine for Turkey’s corporate debt problems. For years, economic growth has been fuelled by cheap international credit. Corporates took out large loans in dollars or euros. But with the currency sliding, the cost of servicing that debt is rocketing.

It wasn’t so long ago that Suruga Bank Ltd. was seen as a model for how Japanese lenders can survive in an era of rock-bottom interest rates and weak loan demand. The regional bank was hailed for generating the best loan margins in the country, thanks to its focus on individual borrowers who were shunned by its risk-averse competitors. Now, Suruga has come unstuck for giving credit to investors in failed real estate investment projects, prompting Japan’s financial regulator to investigate the company’s lending practices, Bloomberg News reported.

Sajjan Jindal-controlled JSW Steel has written to the committee of creditors (CoC) of Essar Steel on inviting fresh bids for the bankrupt firm, Business Standard reported. This has come ahead of the meeting of the CoC on Tuesday. About a month ago, JSW Steel had written to the committee, expressing its interest in taking part in bidding for Essar Steel. However, the CoC had decided not to invite fresh bids owing to time constraints.

Japanese equity funds posted their biggest net outflow since 2001 as investors regained their taste for risk assets in the past week and directed cash to emerging market equities and junk bonds, the Financial Times reported. The moves come as fears of a trade war eased and investors instead expressed optimism about strong earnings growth for US companies, which have begun reporting results for the first three months of the year.

Bowing to criticism from the Singapore Exchange and other investors, embattled Noble Group is removing a provision in its $3.4 billion debt restructuring proposal that penalized shareholders voting against the plan, Reuters reported. The debt-for-equity swap is crucial for the survival of the Singapore-listed company, which has sold billions of dollars of assets, taken hefty writedowns and cut hundreds of jobs over the past three years to slash debt. Noble has secured the backing of its creditors, but it also needs approval from a majority of its shareholders.

Want to screw up a good law? Just try to make it a great one. That's what India did last November when it added a number of restrictions on who could bid for assets in a bankruptcy. The idea of the new regulations was to make it hard for errant owners to regain control of businesses without first settling their dues. But the morality was legal overkill; and that's now evident in the farce that the insolvency of Essar Steel India Ltd. has become, Bloomberg News reported in a commentary.

Sweeping reforms to insolvency laws and regulations are set to benefit distressed companies that are attempting to negotiate a sale and avert going into administration, The Australian Financial Review reported. Local lawyers are of the view that draft regulations released this week by Minister for Revenue and Financial Services Kelly O'Dwyer are largely positive for lenders, struggling companies and the restructuring industry.