Asia Pacific

The Chinese construction company building the unfinished $3.5 billion Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas on Tuesday accused the developer of mismanaging the project's design and not securing adequate financing, Reuters reported. China Construction America (CCA) has been blamed for the delays that caused the Baha Mar project to file for bankruptcy protection late last month in a Delaware court. But CCA said the developer of the project replaced the mega resort's principal architect after construction began and had more than 1,300 change orders for construction contractors.

President Xi Jinping of China has crushed opposition by silencing and often locking up anyone who dares defy the government. But that aura of invincibility has been shaken by stock market speculators, who have made a mockery of efforts to halt a steep slide in share prices, the Irish Times reported. The losses – Chinese shares have shed more than a quarter of their value in three weeks – pose an added risk, and possibly greater danger, to a global economy grappling with Greece‘s difficulties in repaying foreign loans and its possible exit from the euro.

Chinese authorities have ramped up their attempts to restore investor confidence in the country’s tumbling stock markets, setting the stage for another turbulent week of trading on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, the Financial Times reported. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a brief statement late on Sunday night that the central bank would “uphold market stability” by providing liquidity to China Securities Finance, a state entity that makes margin financing available to brokers.

Holders of senior debt from Singapore's banks will have reason to breathe easy if the Monetary Authority of Singapore implements proposals to limit its statutory bail-in framework to subordinated debt, Reuters reported. The proposal, part of a set of proposed enhancements to the bank resolution regime, will turn Singapore into one of the most investor-friendly nations for senior bank debt, as opposed to the approach favoured in Europe and elsewhere.

The bankrupt $3.5 billion Baha Mar mega resort in the Bahamas secured up to $30 billion in interim financing on Wednesday, but it was unclear when construction on the stalled project would resume, Reuters reported. The resort, bankrolled and built by the Chinese and described on its website as "the world's glamourous, new playground, is eight to 12 weeks from completion once construction resumes, a lawyer for the resort told a bankruptcy judge. U.S.

China's push to extend its influence in the Western Hemisphere has hit an embarrassing setback at an unfinished, $3.5 billion resort and casino project in the Bahamas, Reuters reported. A series of construction delays, funding squabbles, lagging inspections and faulty work at the Baha Mar resort in Nassau have led to contention and finger-pointing in recent months among the local developer, a Chinese state-backed contractor and China's export finance bank.

China’s state auditor has uncovered falsified revenues and profits in the accounts of some of the country’s biggest state-owned companies, as Beijing broadens its assault on official corruption, the Financial Times reported. The National Audit Office said on Sunday that 14 state-owned groups, including well-known names such as State Grid, China Ocean Shipping Co (Cosco) and China Southern Power Grid, falsified nearly Rmb30bn ($4.8bn) in revenue and nearly Rmb20bn in profits in 2013.

The receivers for Doug Somers-Edgar's Orange Finance have concluded their work with a shortfall of about $10 million in principal and interest owed to debenture holders of the failed company, Scoop.co.nz reported. Orange froze repayments to some 2,500 investors owed $25.6 million in late 2008 before convincing debenture holders to agree to a moratorium on redemptions and interest payments until the end of July 2011. That deadline was later pushed out another year with trustee Covenant Trustee's approval.

At a ceremony imbued with quiet triumph at the Great Hall of the People, China’s president, Xi Jinping, hosted 56 member countries on Monday for the founding of a Chinese-led infrastructure bank for Asia, including major American allies from Asia and Europe that Washington had counseled not to join the bank, the International New York Times reported.

After more than a week of a brutal selloff in Chinese stocks, the country’s central bank on Saturday took a rare easing step, cutting both its benchmark interest rates and the amount of reserves certain banks are required to hold, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a statement, the People’s Bank of China said both steps were aimed at lowering borrowing costs and “stabilizing growth” in the world’s second-largest economy. The PBOC cut its one-year benchmark lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.85% and its one-year deposit rate by the same scale to 2%.