Asia Pacific

Chinese provincial governments have unveiled ambitious investment plans in recent weeks in a bid to shore up flagging growth, even as the central government in Beijing pledges to reduce the country’s heavy reliance on fixed investment, the Financial Times reported. Economists have warned that excessive and wasteful investment is leading to diminishing financial returns in China as well as rising debt and environmental degradation.

Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. is seeking to expedite a debt restructuring as the troubled developer said it faces as much as 35.5 billion yuan ($5.7 billion) of repayments to creditors this year, Bloomberg News reported. An initial meeting with onshore lenders has been scheduled for today, Kaisa, which is being acquired by Sunac China Holdings Ltd., said in a Hong Kong exchange filing on Monday. Kaisa said it’s aiming to reach an agreement with its offshore creditors by the end of March and expects to complete the restructuring the following month.

Offshore bond investors of Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. are becoming increasingly concerned about the risk the troubled Chinese developer embroiled in an anti-graft investigation could miss coupon payments next month, Bloomberg News reported. Kaisa must pay $16.1 million of interest March 18 on its $250 million of bonds due 2017, and $35.5 million March 19 on its $800 million securities due 2018, Bloomberg-compiled data show. It avoided a default last Friday by making an interest payment of $23 million on its 2020 notes before the grace period deadline.

The government is optimistic that the troika of lenders will in the next few days give the nod to the fifth and last bill of the insolvency framework, finance minister Harris Georgiades told MPs on Monday, Cyprus Mail reported. The bill in question regulates which mortgaged primary homes are exempted, under certain conditions, from repossession, as well as the thorny issue of guarantors to bad loans. “Progress has been made in terms of the consultations and clarifications requested [by the troika], which we have given to them,” Georgiades said.

The idea that China can borrow indefinitely in order to prop up growth simply doesn't wash, Bloomberg View reported in an analysis. In a new report on the world's growing debt glut, McKinsey highlights three huge risks: unsustainably high government borrowing, households in over their heads and China. The mainland earns its singular position because of another trio of concerns: too much debt concentrated in real estate; the scale and complexity of its shadow-banking entities; and rampant off-balance sheet borrowing by local governments.

Japan's Skymark airlines, which last week filed for bankruptcy protection, will seek other sponsors alongside investment fund Integral Corp to help turn its business around, Skymark and Integral said on Thursday. Skymark filed for protection from creditors with total liabilities of 71.09 billion yen ($605.7 million). Integral has agreed to provide 9 billion yen to help keep the business going, said Nobuo Sayama, representative director of the fund.

Vietnam’s central bank appears to be fulfilling its recent promise to accelerate the restructuring of the country’s banking system, which is burdened with non-performing loans, The Wall Street Journal Frontiers blog reported. This week, the central bank announced it had taken over the unlisted Vietnam Construction Bank, which has reportedly been losing money, and put it under the management of the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam — known as Vietcombank — which is more than 90% state-owned.

High-profile fashion designer Josh Goot has placed his eponymous label in voluntary administration in a bid to withstand the “well-documented difficult trading conditions in the fashion industry”. Michael Smith and Peter Hillig of Smith Hancock were appointed administrators of Josh Goot on February 2. Goot founded the label in 2005. The business currently operates two retail stores, in Paddington in Sydney and Armadale in Melbourne, along with a wholesale business, and all parts of the business are expected to continue to trade throughout the administration process.

China’s tax officials plan to step up efforts to collect taxes from multinational corporation in the latest of a series of moves in the last year, mostly against Western companies. The activities have included police raids on the headquarters of companies’ China operations and heavy fines under antimonopoly law, the International New York Times reported. The State Administration of Taxation said that it would be looking in detail at how companies move money and allocate costs among their Chinese operations and their overseas businesses.

Japan's Skymark Airlines Inc is looking for a "business sponsor" to help it emerge from bankruptcy, a move that could eventually give control of the fiercely independent budget carrier to its rivals. Japan's biggest budget airline, which sought protection from creditors last week, said a sponsor could help it cut costs and increase revenue, according to a Jan. 28 court filing seen by Reuters on Tuesday.