S&P Global Inc. plans to offer its ratings services in the Chinese domestic bond market, with an eye on buying a majority stake in a local agency or setting up a new entity there to do so, its chief financial officer said. The world’s largest credit rater’s plan to assess the yuan-denominated bonds of Chinese firms follows the People’s Bank of China’s decision last year to allow international ratings companies to set up their own businesses in the nation, according to CFO Ewout Steenbergen, Bloomberg News reported.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has agreed to buy a stake in Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s cinema operator as billionaire Wang Jianlin’s real estate-to-entertainment conglomerate turns to another Chinese tech giant and a government-backed company for investments totaling about 7.8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), Bloomberg News reported. Alibaba is to pay 4.68 billion yuan for a 7.66 percent stake in Wanda Film Holding Co., making the e-commerce giant the second-biggest shareholder, Wanda Film said Monday in a regulatory filing.

In another relief for debt-laden Reliance Communications, Mumbai-based Smartphone has withdrawn a petition seeking insolvency of the company filed before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), The Hindu Business Line reported. The petition, filed under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), was withdrawn on Friday. Smartphone is a wholesale dealer of batteries and had supplied to telcos, including RCom. The Mumbai NCLT bench — comprising MK Shrawat and BP Mohan — disposed of Smartphone petition as ‘withdrawn’.

China's Alibaba became the biggest shareholder in India's leading online grocer BigBasket after a $300-million funding round, stepping up its rivalry with Amazon in the country, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Alibaba invested $146 million in the grocer, subscribing to compulsorily convertible preference shares, BigBasket said in a filing to Indian regulators.

A rare event in a corner of China’s credit market is fueling concern that more defaults are looming, adding to strains sparked by the government’s crackdown on leverage, Bloomberg News reported. A timber company in the country’s northeast decided this week not to pay off perpetual bonds despite having an option to do so. That was a first for a junk-rated issuer of such securities in China. Firms that raise money with perpetuals never have to pay off the principal, in theory.

Noble Group Ltd. responded to criticisms by one of its biggest shareholders about the embattled commodity trader’s conduct, and defended the debt rescue plan that’s set to hand management a bigger stake than equity investors, Bloomberg News reported. Abu Dhabi-based Goldilocks Investment Co. wrote to the Singapore Exchange Ltd. this week requesting an investigation into Noble’s directors and management, according to a copy of the letter seen by Bloomberg.

China’s Great Fire Sale looks set to take off. HNA Group Co., the indebted Chinese aviation-to-hotels conglomerate, told creditors it will seek to sell about 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) in assets in the first half of the year to repay debts and stave off a liquidity crunch, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private, Bloomberg News reported. Under the proposal, about 80 percent of that would be executed in the second quarter, according to the people.

ZZ Capital International Ltd., the private equity firm controlled by Chinese shadow-banking tycoon Xie Zhikun, is preparing to dramatically scale back its operations, according to people familiar with the matter. A number of senior executives at the Hong Kong-based fund, including at least two seasoned dealmakers brought in from global advisory firms, are currently negotiating severance packages, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private, Bloomberg News reported.

This might be the year China gets its first four-letter default. Or so says S&P Global Ratings, discussing the possibility that an LGFV, or local government financing vehicle, could finally go belly-up, Bloomberg News reported in a commentary. Why should global investors care? More than 95 percent of the $1 trillion asset class is yuan-denominated and trades onshore. The offshore portion is small, and showing little sign of distress. The coupon on a $500 million, three-year dollar bond recently issued by Central Plaza Development Ltd. was 3.875 percent.

Noble Group Ltd. reached a deal to restructure $3.5 billion in debt, saving the troubled commodity trader from bankruptcy at the cost of handing control to creditors and all but wiping out current shareholders, Bloomberg News reported. After a three-year crisis marked by massive losses, writedowns and controversial accounting, Noble management, bank creditors, and bondholders reached an in-principle agreement that will convert half of the debt -- roughly $1.7 billion -- into new equity, the company said on Monday.