Indian tycoon Neeraj Singal has been arrested for allegedly siphoning off funds from Bhushan Steel, one of the biggest companies targeted under the country’s new bankruptcy act, the Financial Times reported. India’s Serious Fraud Investigation Office said late on Thursday that the businessman had been put in custody connected with “serious corporate fraud”. Mr Singal could not immediately be reached for comment.

Insurer Prudential is unlikely to split into two before late 2019, it said on Wednesday as growth in Asia helped it beat first-half profit forecasts, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Britain's largest listed insurer said in March it planned to demerge M&G Prudential, its UK and Europe life insurance and asset management business, into a separate business with a London listing. The remaining Prudential business will focus on Asia and the United States.

Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp said on Thursday it would disburse A$100 million ($74.2 million) in cheap loans to farmers as a record dry spell hits parts of the nation, while the country’s lenders fight to regain public trust amidst an ongoing misconduct inquiry, Reuters reported. The drought in Australia’s east, one of the worst on record, is impacting every area of rural life, often with global trade and price implications. Already many cattle graziers are being forced to sell stock they can no longer feed.

The Philippine economy grew less than expected in the second quarter amid rising inflation, according to figures released on Thursday. The Philippines’ gross domestic product rose 6 per cent year on year in the three months through June, well short of the 6.7 per cent median forecast from a Reuters poll of economists and down from revised first-quarter GDP growth of 6.6 per cent, the Financial Times reported.

The longer Turkish policy makers wait to stem the lira’s precipitous slide, the bigger the toll on the already fragile economy, Bloomberg News reported. The cost of insuring the nation’s debt against default climbed to a nine-year high as an almost 30 percent plunge in the exchange rate in 2018 threatens the finances of local firms that have gorged on foreign-currency loans. Turkish companies have foreign-exchange liabilities equal to about a third of the country’s gross domestic product, posing a serious threat to banks if the currency depreciation isn’t contained.

Indonesia at times felt uncomfortably close to the center of this year’s emerging-market selloff as bond yields rose for five straight months and the rupiah slid more than 6 percent, Bloomberg News reported. Some funds are now saying it’s time to get back in. Loomis Sayles & Co. is looking to boost holdings of Indonesian bonds, citing sound domestic fundamentals and inflation that is close to target. Western Asset Management Co. says a proactive central bank and the recent increase in yields may be creating a buying opportunity for the nation’s dollar-denominated debt.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has called it the “project of the century” and said it will usher in a “golden age” of globalisation. With Beijing-backed projects in 78 countries, the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) is one of the world’s most ambitious development programmes. But critics fear it could become the conduit through which some of China’s debt problems are transmitted overseas, the Financial Times reported.

China's HNA Group Co Ltd is in advanced talks to sell a 30 percent stake in aircraft lessor Avolon Holdings Ltd to Japan's Orix Corp, two sources said, as the company attempts to restructure and trim stakes even in its core assets, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The aviation-to-financial services conglomerate, which has racked up massive debt from acquisitions in recent years, is nearing a deal to sell the stake in Dublin-based Avolon for about $2.2 billion, the sources, who were familiar with the matter, told Reuters.

Investors are watching closely to see whether Turkish banks will maintain access to the foreign funding they need to keep economic activity humming, as the economy is battered by U.S. sanctions, rating cuts, concern about a looming fine on a state bank and a plunging lira, Bloomberg News reported. Turkish lenders have a good record of foreign borrowing even at the height of a financial crisis and are strong enough to weather a slowdown, according to bank executives.

The Force India Formula One team will come out of administration after a rescue deal involving a consortium of investors led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, administrators and management said in a statement on Tuesday. They said creditors would be paid in full and all 405 jobs at the Silverstone-based team, that was co-owned by embattled Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and finished fourth last year, were safe, Reuters reported. Stroll is the father of Williams Formula One driver Lance.