India may allow more time for the restructuring plans of defaulting companies to be approved, according to people with knowledge of the matter, as a slew of lawsuits from owners, lenders and bidders slows the insolvency process and tests a new bankruptcy law, Bloomberg News reported. The rules mandate that a bad-loan resolution plan must be agreed upon within 270 days, failing which they require liquidation of the company’s assets.

As China’s President Xi Jinping steps up efforts to rein in excessive borrowing, the nation’s corporate bond market faces rising default risks as weaker firms and local borrowers struggle to roll over obligations, Bloomberg News reported. The latest salvo came last month, when the top economic planning body said it will step up scrutiny of the public works-related assets held by companies seeking to sell bonds. The National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC, also said it would further regulate bond sales by public-private partnership projects.

China is likely to extend an agreement providing crisis-stricken Venezuela with favourable loans repayment terms but will not lend fresh funds to President Nicolas Maduro's government, according to sources in Caracas and Beijing familiar with the situation. During a decade, China plowed more than $50 billion into the OPEC member's coffers through oil-for-loan agreements that helped Beijing secure energy supplies for its fast-growing economy while bolstering an anti-Washington ally in Latin America, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

The cost of Noble Group Ltd.’s restructuring is likely to top $100 million, another financial burden for the cash-strapped commodities trader that has defaulted on its bonds, Bloomberg News reported. The estimated price tag for advisers and other expenses, based on disclosures in regulatory filings, is approaching the company’s entire market value of $114 million as Noble pays fees to the company’s creditors and foots much of the bill for the 11 law firms, investment banks and public relations consultants working on the restructuring.

South Korean shipbuilders aren’t out of the woods yet even as orders begin recovering, with the smaller ones facing collapse in the absence of government support, according to a shipping-debt trader, Bloomberg News reported. The government will aid larger shipyards through ways such as giving them orders for the next few years, under its support policy for the shipping and shipbuilding industries, said Soo Cheon Lee, co-founder and chief investment officer of SC Lowy, a Hong Kong-based loan and bond trading firm.

UltraTech Cement Ltd. has signed an “in-principle” pact with Binani Industries Ltd. to buy its holdings of a distressed unit as India’s largest cement maker attempts to beat out a Bain-backed consortium, which earlier made the winning bid in ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, Bloomberg News reported. UltraTech, controlled by billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, said it had agreed to pay 72.7 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) for a 98.43 percent stake in Binani Cement Ltd. “subject to termination of” the insolvency proceedings that are underway, according to an exchange filing. The Dalmia Bharat Ltd.

Noble Group Ltd. is racing against time to garner enough votes for a debt restructuring plan after its decision not to pay a $379 million bond due Tuesday sets it on course for its first note default, Bloomberg News reported. The failed payment is set to prompt an “event of default” under the terms of its bond documents. The company has opted for non-payment to preserve assets “for the benefit of all stakeholders during the implementation of the proposed restructuring,” it said in a filing Friday.

State Bank of India will take a decision on a one-time settlement application filed by Uttam Galva Steels at a 50 per cent haircut by March-end, if accepted, will prompt other companies, being referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), to apply for a similar relief, Business Standard reported. Uttam Galva Steels had defaulted on its Rs 60 billion of debt and the firm has made an offer last week to its lenders. “This is likely to be accepted as the banks do not want to delay settlements due to rising litigation,” a source said.

One of the biggest shareholders in Noble Group has attacked its new debt restructuring proposal, which it says will reward the company’s “errant and undeserving management”. Cranking up the pressure on the stricken commodity trader, Goldilocks Investment, an 8.1 per cent shareholder, said it was “astounded” that the company had continued to ignore calls to make the restructuring more equitable, the Financial Times reported. It also attacked the company’s plans to bulldoze through the debt-for-equity swap via a prepackaged administration in the UK.

From London to St. Kitts, India’s struggling to extradite businessmen it claims have fled the country after defaulting on billions of dollars of bank loans, Bloomberg News reported. Now it hopes to stop others from leaving. The government has compiled a list of 91 people it is considering barring from leaving India because of their involvement with companies that have defaulted, said a person with knowledge of the matter.