Asia Pacific

The state government of Western Australia has broken widely held conventions with the introduction of legislation to seize and distribute A$1.7bn (US$1.3bn) owed to the remaining creditors of the Bell Group of companies, Reuters reported. A government authority has been appointed to prevent further litigation over the liquidation of Bell Group in 1991, a legal case that has dragged on for two decades.

Australia’s struggling conservative government faces a high-stakes test this week as it prepares to unveil its second budget, The Wall Street Journal reported. Announcing too much austerity on May 12—as the government did last year—could turn off voters ahead of an election that must be called next year. Too little would make a mockery of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s pledge two years ago, before the last election, to end quickly a string of deficits under the previous Labor government.

China cut interest rates for the third time in six months amid a worse-than-expected economic slowdown, as authorities scramble to ease the heavy debt burdens of companies and governments. The People’s Bank of China said Sunday it would shave a quarter of a percentage point off benchmark lending and deposit rates, effective Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move comes as senior Chinese officials are growing more fearful that the mountain of debt from the rapid expansion of credit over the past few years is weighing on efforts to pick up the world’s second-largest economy.

Anbang Insurance Group of China is in talks to buy the large real-estate arm of the failed German lender Hypo Real Estate AG, in a potential billion-euro deal that would expand a global shopping spree by the Beijing-based firm, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. State-owned bank Hypo Real Estate, based in Munich, has said it is working to sell its real-estate lending division, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG, known as PBB, through either an initial public offering or an outright sale.

Anbang Insurance Group of China is in talks to buy the large real-estate arm of the failed German lender Hypo Real Estate AG, in a potential billion-euro deal that would expand a global shopping spree by the Beijing-based firm, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. State-owned bank Hypo Real Estate, based in Munich, has said it is working to sell its real-estate lending division, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG, known as PBB, through either an initial public offering or an outright sale.

NZF Group, the former financial services company, has entered voluntary administration after its second reverse listing proposal fell through, Scoop.co.nz reported. Last month the Auckland-based finance company said it would look to find a way to return funds to its noteholders "in a timely and cost effective manner" after plans for its listed shell to be used by Inventory Technologies in a reverse listing fell through. NZF is now appointing administrators to "expedite a timely distribution of funds to the holders of NZF capital notes," it said in a statement.

Investors still wondering how Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. doubled its debt in six months and triggered China’s first property bond default may want to read page 63 of its 2014 interim report. There, in footnote No. 15 of the Shenzhen-based company’s balance sheet, is a reference to 11 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) in advance deposits for property projects from third parties and for 1.15 billion yuan that needed to be refunded, Bloomberg News reported. At issue is whether these deposits were initially classified properly as current liabilities on Kaisa’s books.

In cutting interest rates to a fresh record low of 2.0% Tuesday, Australia’s central bank is hoping to give a jolt to an economy that’s suffering from the end of a decadelong mining boom, The Wall Street Journal reported. But a series of rate cuts in the past three years have failed to achieve the Reserve Bank of Australia’s goal of fostering manufacturing and other businesses that lost out during the era of high commodity prices. Weighed down by high costs, weak consumer demand and other worries—many of which are hangovers of the boom—businesses are reluctant to invest.

Lawmakers in Cyprus on Saturday passed key insolvency laws designed to open the taps for more international bailout cash, WTVQ reported on an Associated Press story. The vote makes it possible to operate foreclosure laws that international creditors have demanded as a condition for extending more loans to Cyprus. Recession, high unemployment and declining incomes have produced defaults on more than half of all private loans. The new laws should make it easier for banks to demand payment or seize assets, thereby reducing the banks' own liabilities.

As debt has grown across Asia, an increasing portion of the lending has come from nonbank lenders—raising regulators’ concerns about the stability of their financial systems, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Shadow banking” has been a well-documented driver of China’s debt boom, accounting for about a fifth of total lending since 2008. But shadow banks also have boosted lending in South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, all places where consumers have grown increasingly indebted.