A consortium led by VTB Group, Russia’s second-largest bank, said it is willing to buy out a local partner to ensure its offer for an indebted Indian steel mill meets government rules, setting up a contest with billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, Bloomberg News reported. Other investors in the group are willing to buy out Rewant Ruia’s stake in investment vehicle Numetal Ltd., Antoine Chemali, senior advisor for Mauritius-based Numetal, said in an interview in Mumbai on Thursday. That’s likely required because Ruia’s father is the founder of Essar Steel India Ltd.

Noble Group Ltd., the embattled commodity trader seeking to secure investor support for a major debt restructuring, paid $20 million in retention payments to senior staff at its U.S. oil and gas business last June, Bloomberg News reported. The company revealed the payments Wednesday in response to questions from the Singapore Exchange on the remuneration of its former co-Chief Executive Officer Jeff Frase, who led the oil business.

HNA Group Co., the poster child for runaway corporate debt in China, is increasingly drawing attention to another of the nation’s financial ills: trading halts that leave stock investors trapped for weeks on end. Seven listed units of HNA have halted their shares for seven weeks or more, creating the largest swathe of frozen stock tied to a single business group in China, Bloomberg News reported. The suspensions, which affect $31 billion of equity, have prevented minority shareholders from selling at a time of mounting financial stress for the aviation-to-hotels conglomerate.

China’s overhaul of its financial and business regulators will give the country’s leadership more punch in its top-priority battle to fend off deep-seated risks in the banking system and overall economy, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Nearly a year after a shock trading loss sent it spiraling toward collapse, the commodity trader is racing to reach a deal with a group of senior creditors before a $379 million bond maturity on March 20, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. "The clock is really ticking," said Jean-Francois Lambert, a consultant and former head of commodity trade finance at HSBC Holdings Plc.

India's Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) will appeal a court order that stays the sale of some telecom assets of one of its units, the company said in a statement on Monday, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The National Company Law Tribunal, India's designated court for bankruptcy cases, on Monday stayed the sale of assets of Reliance Infratel Ltd in response to a petition filed by HSBC Daisy Investments (Mauritius) Ltd, local media reported.

CEFC China Energy, the once-acquisitive conglomerate, was prepared to pay annual rates of as much as 36 percent for short-term funding in a sign of the cash crunch faced by the company as authorities were closing in on its chairman, according to multiple people with knowledge of the matter. Earlier this month it was revealed that Ye Jianming, the company's chairman, had been investigated for suspected economic crimes, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

In a move aimed at providing relief to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), a panel set up to look into various issues relating to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is considering allowing promoters of MSMEs to bid for their stressed assets even without clearing dues if they are not wilful defaulters, official sources told Financial Express.

China, Canada and Hong Kong are among the economies most at risk of a banking crisis, according to early warning indicators compiled by the Bank for International Settlements, Bloomberg News reported. Canada -- whose economy grew last year at the fastest pace since 2011 -- was flagged thanks to its households’ maxed-out credit cards and high debt levels in the wider economy. These same issues also afflict China and Hong Kong, according to the study.

The government may seek to ease the ‘related party’ norms of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to ensure the law is not overly restrictive and doesn’t cut down the number of those eligible to bid for assets, effectively weakening competition and reducing the amount that banks can recoup, a senior government official told the Economic Times. The IBC was strengthened by ordinance and then by amendment to prevent promoters from regaining control of assets in insolvency proceedings unless they repaid their dues.