Asia Pacific

Korea's leading robot vacuum cleaner manufacturer Moneual has filed for court receivership after failing to pay bonds worth 500 billion won ($474.1 million) that matured last week, The Korea Times reported. The Suwon District Court will soon decide whether to approve its request. Major creditors include the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, the Korea Development Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea.

LDK Solar Co., the Chinese solar-cell maker that defaulted on its bonds this year, filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. to help carry out restructurings already under way in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands, Bloomberg News reported. Xinyu, China-based LDK filed for Chapter 15 protection today in Wilmington, Delaware, listing about $1.13 billion in debt and $510 million in assets as of May 31. Chapter 15 is the section of the bankruptcy code used by foreign companies restructuring abroad to fend off creditors and distribute payments in the U.S.

As the Cypriot economy reeled from the collapse of its second-largest bank in 2013, the European Central Bank faced a thorny question: Should it keep the institution, Cyprus Popular Bank, alive with short-term loans or pull the plug? By many financial measures, the bank was failing, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported in an analysis. Stung by a disastrous bet on Greek government bonds, Cyprus Popular Bank had been in trouble for the better part of 2012 and depositors were withdrawing their savings in ever larger numbers. It needed cash and fast. Under E.C.B.

International Monetary Fund Chief Christine Lagarde lamented last week that the world has “too little economic risk taking, and too much financial risk taking.” In the Philippines, there might be both, Bloomberg News reported. Companies in the Southeast Asian nation eager to make acquisitions and capital investments are piling on foreign debt, in the process leaving the economy vulnerable should emerging-market currencies get roiled again.

Kazakhstan's Alliance Bank, majority owned by the country's sovereign wealth fund, is close to completing a $1.2 billion debt restructuring and a merger with two other banks, its chief executive said on Wednesday. Timur Issatayev, who has been meeting creditors in London and New York, told Reuters he was confident of getting the go-ahead at creditor and shareholder meetings due in coming weeks. The proposals, put forward in August, are seen halving the nominal value of existing bond holdings to $300 million.

China is lowering down payment requirements and discounting mortgages as declining housing sales put a drag on the economy, Bloomberg News reported. After four years of government restrictions to cool housing prices that had tripled since 2000, the central bank is reversing course, making it easier for homeowners to buy second properties. They are not likely to get back into the market, several analysts said, until prices become more affordable.

Troubled steelmaker Lucchini said on Tuesday it planned to ask India's JSW Steel to raise its offer of less than $100 million for the Italian company's core assets in Piombino on the Tuscan coast, Reuters reported. Lucchini, Italy's second-largest steel plant by capacity, was previously owned by Russia's Severstal, but it was declared insolvent in 2012 and placed under special administration. JSW so far has made the only binding offer.

Hotel-management chain Aqua Sol, owner and administrator of 15 hotels in Cyprus, Rhodes and Crete, along with its nine subsidiaries has been placed under receivership for its failure to comply with its contractual obligations with the Bank of Cyprus, it was announced on Tuesday, Cyprus Mail reported.

The Chinese developer Agile Property Holdings, battling an industry slowdown and speculation about ties to China’s former security chief, said that it was in talks with banks about extending a bridge loan and that the founder’s family would commit to lending $200 million, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Shares in the company, valued at around $2.1 billion, slumped by as much as 31 percent on Monday to five-year lows as they resumed trading after a week’s halt.

China has taken a big step towards the resolution of its mounting local government debt burden with the introduction of a legal framework allowing cities and provinces to issue debt directly, Reuters reported. Last week's regulations make it clear that the central government will not bail out local obligations, a key step in creating a municipal bond market that analysts expect will reach Rmb1trn (US$164bn) of new issues in 2015.