Asia Pacific

BASIC Bank's default loans continue to escalate in the face of irregularities, despite Bangladesh Bank's efforts to keep it in check, The Daily Star reported. By the end of June, it is forecast to hit Tk 1,700 crore, up 13 percent from March 30, according to a finance ministry report placed in parliament on Thursday. The figure is 13.45 percent of the state-run scheduled bank's total outstanding loans, and a central bank official tipped the actual figures to be much higher as the bank showed a huge amount of bad loans to be non-classified.

The administrators of troubled New Zealand clothing retailer Postie Plus Group Ltd said on Wednesday they have found a likely buyer for the company. The struggling company called in administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers on Tuesday after its bank refused to back the retail chain which has been racking up losses and losing market share for the past two years. The company's 82 shops were open for business as usual, but Postie Plus shares have been suspended from trading on the NZ stock exchange pending clarification of its future.

Postie Plus, the worst performing stock on the New Zealand stock market, has appointed administrators after its lenders withdrew support as the company continued to make ongoing losses, The New Zealand Herald reported. The Auckland-based retailer appointed David Bridgman and Colin McCloy of PwC as administrators, saying attempts to recapitalise the business had been unsuccessful. The retailer's board also sought to sell the business outright, or find a new cornerstone shareholder. The administration should allow Postie Plus to keep trading so it can be sold as a going concern.

One of Australia's best-known insolvency practitioners, KordaMentha partner Mark Korda, has been accused of giving substandard advice to failed investment group Octaviar in the run-up to its collapse in September 2008, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. In a lawsuit filed with the Queensland Supreme Court, the liquidators of two companies in the Octaviar group accuse KordaMentha's advisory arm, 333 Capital, of breach of duty and misleading or deceptive conduct.

Talks with creditors of Kazakhstan's wealth fund-controlled Alliance Bank have broken down without agreement, the bank's chief executive said on Thursday. "Negotiations have broken down, no agreement was reached," Timur Isatayev told Reuters by telephone. The bank met a creditor committee over the past two days and offered improved terms compared with an initial debt restructuring offer made in January, Isatayev said. Alliance is 51 percent owned by local sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, which has reduced its stake in recent weeks.

China Vanke Co., the nation’s biggest developer, is focused on developing homes for owner occupiers rather than investors because the country’s property industry has passed its “golden era,” said President Yu Liang, Bloomberg News reported. “The period in which everybody makes money out of property is gone,” Yu told reporters May 26 in Dongguan, a southern city in Guangdong province.

STX Dalian Group is now formally under court receivership after China’s Dalian court accepted the company’s application, Seatrade reported. The financially-troubled group will now undergo a restructuring process, and the court and its creditors will proceed to discuss how to resolve the debts of the company. Since May 2013, the operations of STX Dalian have been virtually crippled and the yards are being emptied out due to massive cash flow problems.

LDK Solar Co., the Chinese solar manufacturer which defaulted on a bond that matured in February, said it received 2 billion yuan ($321 million) of loans from Chinese banks, Bloomberg News reported. China Development Bank Corp., the nation’s biggest policy lender, is leading the funding from 11 financial institutions, LDK spokesman Peng Shaomin said in a phone interview today. LDK will spend more than 400 million yuan on a polysilicon project and use the remainder to boost its cash reserves, Peng said.

India has proposed a framework for the bankruptcy of financial institutions that will align the country with international standards, Reuters reported. Analysts suggested, however, that the regulation will increase the cost of senior funding for Indian banks if it is implemented according to the draft submitted to the market for comments. The proposals from a working group of the Reserve Bank of India call for depositors to have preference over senior creditors.

Malaysian Airline System Bhd., the carrier reeling from the disappearance of Flight 370 more than two months ago, won’t seek bankruptcy and will instead accelerate an overhaul to help it break even next year, Bloomberg News reported. “I don’t see that as an option at this stage,” Hugh Dunleavy, the airline’s director of commercial operations, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin yesterday, when asked about a possible insolvency. A review of all operations may take about three months, with implementation of changes maybe requiring another six to nine months, he said.