Creditors are pushing for liquidation of Alok Industries Ltd. and Jyoti Structures Ltd. -- which together owe about 380 billion rupees ($5.8 billion) -- as they aren’t happy with bids for the debt-laden companies, said people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. The only binding bid for textile firm Alok is one from Reliance Industries Ltd. and JM Financial ARC, which offers a price that’s too low for the lenders, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is private. They didn’t provide further details. Alok owes 299 billion rupees, according to official data.

Nearly a third of the companies have defaulted on the loans they have taken from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). These loans were extended on “easy terms” towards developing new technologies, and to encourage start-ups, The Hindu reported. They were awarded as part of an ongoing scheme since 2001, according to a response by Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan to a question in the Lok Sabha.

UTAC Holdings Ltd., the Singapore-based chip testing firm backed by Affinity Equity Partners and TPG, is exploring options for a sale of its business after completing a bond restructuring, people with knowledge of the matter said. The company met potential advisers in recent weeks to discuss options that could include an initial public offering or sale, according to the people, Bloomberg News reported. Its owners could seek a valuation of about $1 billion including debt from any exit, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

The consortium formed to build and operate the world’s biggest airport in Istanbul was facing enough challenges even before the government minister in charge of the project started talking about insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. In a television interview late Monday, Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan confirmed the government was considering giving the consortium an unspecified amount of time before requiring it to start paying rent, which has been set at more than $1 billion annually over 25 years. But then he went a step further.

Chinese conglomerate Anbang Insurance Group, whose former chairman and top shareholder faced trial for fraud last week, will receive a Rmb61bn ($9.7bn) capital injection from an insurance-industry rescue fund, as a transitional arrangement until the company can find new long-term investors, the Financial Times reported. The equity injection by the China Insurance Security Fund (CISF) is "based on the needs of risk disposal work for temporary, partial shareholding" of Anbang, the insurer said in a statement on Wednesday morning.

Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal’s ArcelorMittal will on Wednesday challenge in court the legitimacy of a bid for Essar Steel India Ltd. by a group led by VTB Capital, intensifying the battle for the biggest industry asset yet to be sold under a new bankruptcy law, Bloomberg News reported. Mittal’s steelmaker has several reasons to question the eligibility of the VTB-led Numetal Ltd. group, including that Aurora Enterprises was part of the consortium at the time of an initial round of bidding, Brian Aranha, an executive president at ArcelorMittal, said in an interview in Mumbai.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India has tightened the entry barriers for insolvency professionals by bringing in a new set of austere amendments with effect from April 1 which will ensure that only seasoned professionals are allowed to function, The Economic Times reported. With these measures, a bunch of 76 home-grown insolvency professional entities (IPEs), a kind of boutique firm, are now staring at a better prospect over their peers.

Investors in local-currency Chinese corporate bonds need to be on alert this year, with record maturities and a government crackdown on debt increasing the risk of more defaults, Bloomberg News reported. There were six defaults on bonds in the first quarter, the most since the April-June period of last year, and investors and analysts are predicting more as interest rates rise and China clamps down on excessive borrowing. The tighter financing environment is hitting smaller private-sector firms hardest, as they haven’t benefited from capacity cuts.

Three bidders, including two new players, have submitted resolution plans after lenders called for fresh bids in Essar Steel Ltd.’s insolvency process, Bloomberg News reported. These include a joint venture between ArcelorMittal India and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, Nu Metal & Steel Pvt. Ltd, in which JSW Steel is an investor, and the Vedanta Group, according to two people in the know who spoke to BloombergQuint on the condition of anonymity. Of the three, ArcelorMittal-Suitomo JV had participated in the earlier bidding as well.

Tata Steel Ltd. has offered Rs 35,200 crore in cash, and conversion of the remaining debt of about Rs 27,000 crore into equity, to take over Bhushan Steel Ltd., the counsel for the committee of creditors informed NCLT today, Bloomberg News reported. Creditors will get 12.27 percent equity in Bhushan Steel, Senior Advocate Ravi Kadam told the principal bench of the National Company Law Tribunal. “Tata Steel is the highest bidder (H1) offering an upfront payment of Rs 35,200 crore. Remaining debt would be converted into equity,” he said.