Just seven years ago, Noble Group was an $11 billion-plus Asian commodity powerhouse, trading everything from soybeans to oil. Now it's worth barely $80 million, rooted among Singapore's penny stocks, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Noble has posted huge losses provoked by a lack of trade financing and market calls that went sour, while also whittling down a mountain of debt. On Tuesday, it reported a narrower first-quarter loss than a year ago, although saying its performance was still beset by constraints on liquidity and trade finance.

Fitch Ratings has upgraded its rating for Vietnam, noting the country’s improving track record on economic policy, debt and reform, the Financial Times reported. The rating agency said Vietnam’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating has been upgraded to BB with a stable outlook, from BB-, and that it expected Vietnam to remain among the fastest-growing economies in the Asia-Pacific region. “Vietnam's track record of policy-making focused on strong macroeconomic performance has been improving,” the agency said, adding that growth of 6.7 per cent is expected this ye

Vedanta on Monday said it had received the go-ahead from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to acquire bankrupt Electrosteel Steels, Business Standard reported. “Vedanta (the company) has received the approval from the CCI for the application made by it for the acquisition of Electrosteel Steels,” the Indian unit of Vedanta Resources said in a filing to the BSE. In a tweet, the CCI said it found “no Appreciable Adverse Effect on Competition (AAEC) in respect of proposed acquisition of Electrosteel Steels by Vedanta”.

Disenchanted by the long-drawn-out proceedings for insolvency resolution cases filed against large borrowers that have failed to repay loans, many banks are planning to approach the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) for some succour, The Hindu Business Line reported.

Lakshadweep, a joint venture between Sudhir Valia-led Suraksha ARC and Dosti Realty, will look at “improving” its bid for Jaiprakash Infrastructure (JIL) if an opportunity is afforded to it, sources close to the development told FE. The firm has already conveyed its intent to the resolution professional and the lenders to the troubled real estate company, the sources added.

Enron Corp. is long gone, but the scandal it left behind in India has beguiled the country’s lenders for almost two decades, Bloomberg News reported in a commentary. However, if the bankers who financed the U.S. energy company’s unviable power plant in Maharashtra state aren’t ruing that 2,000-megawatt debacle any more, it’s only because they’re now staring at a mess 20 times bigger. India’s total electricity-generation ability is 344,000 megawatts, a 72 percent increase over six years. The country, notorious for its outages, still doesn’t have a power surplus.

Argentina’s latest capitulation may have helped to keep Turkey out of the headlines in recent weeks but some believe the latter’s banking sector could ultimately provide the most dramatic fireworks, the Financial Times reported. When a country has loaded up on foreign currency-denominated debt, the last thing it wants to see is a plunge in its own currency. Unfortunately, Turkey has seen just that, with the lira slumping 12.6 per cent against the dollar since mid-February. A look at the country’s metrics is sobering.

China's stock exchanges have stepped up their scrutiny of the booming asset-backed securities (ABS) market, publishing new rules that require prompt information disclosure and risk management updates from issuers, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. China's ABS market has exploded over the past few years as the government's crackdown on shadow banking pushed borrowers to alternative sources of finance. Issuance of ABS jumped to 1.5 trillion yuan ($236.84 billion) last year, from almost zero in 2013, according to consultancy China Securities Analytics.

India’s new bankruptcy law is being bogged down by bitter court room disputes that include the likes of ArcelorMittal and the Tata Group -- jeopardizing the law’s promise of time-bound resolution in a country famous for its sluggish legal system, Bloomberg News reported. None of the 12 large debtor companies that the central bank forced into bankruptcy court in June have been sold yet. The National Company Law Tribunal or NCLT, in charge of the process, has extended a 270-day deadline enshrined in the law for Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd. and Essar Steel India Ltd.

With corporate-debt defaults on the rise, China’s securities regulator will probe bond funds to ensure that they have proper risk controls in place, according to people familiar with the matter. The China Securities Regulatory Commission’s investigation will include whether individual firms’ funds are shuffling high-risk bonds between them, said the people who asked not to be named as the discussions aren’t public, Bloomberg News reported. One suspicion is mutual-fund companies may be motivated to beautify their holdings to avoid a mass withdrawal by investors, the people said.