Asia Pacific

Sony is now looking to sell its former headquarters and surrounding buildings in central Tokyo in its continuing struggle to stem losses from its consumer electronics business, according to a person familiar with the plan, The Wall Street Journal Japan Real Time blog reported. The sale would follow a frenzied unloading of properties in 2013, the most iconic being the $1.1 billion sale of Sony’s U.S. headquarters at 550 Madison Avenue.

The Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange in Tokyo filed for bankruptcy protection Friday and its chief executive said 850,000 bitcoins, worth several hundred million dollars, are unaccounted for, The Washington Post reported. The exchange’s CEO Mark Karpeles appeared before Japanese TV news cameras, bowing deeply. He said a weakness in the exchange’s systems was behind a massive loss of the virtual currency involving 750,000 bitcoins from users and 100,000 of the company’s own bitcoins. That would amount to about $425 million at recent prices.

Zhang Hongbao, who’s run a funeral home in Shanghai for more than a decade, says he can’t recall the last time business was so dead, Bloomberg reported. “Government officials don’t dare to spend too much on funerals,” Zhang, owner of Shanghai Funeral Service (China) Co., said in an interview. “It’s the peak of the anti-corruption drive.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said all capital controls on the island would be lifted by the end of the year, a step that would remove a symbol of his country's isolation from the rest of the euro area. The controls have been in place almost a year, since Cyprus agreed to a €10-billion bailout from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund in March 2013. "The timeline is that we'll lift internal restrictions very soon, and for all other banking activities—including with abroad—by the end of the year," Mr.

While the spotlight maybe on the new gadgets being launched at Mobile World Congress by some of the world’s biggest tech companies, spare a thought for little old Pantech, South Korea’s ailing smartphone maker, The Wall Street Journal Korea Real Time blog reported. After trying for years to eke out profits and carve a niche for itself in the smartphone industry, Pantech is now seeking help to restructure its debt.

The European Commission said on Monday it had found recapitalisation and restructuring aid measures in favour of the cooperative banking sector in Cyprus to be in line with EU state aid rules, Cyprus Mail reported. In a statement, the Commission said the measures would enable the cooperative banking sector to become viable in the long term without continued state support, while limiting the distortions of competition created by the aid.

Suntech Power Holdings Corp., the Chinese solar-panel maker that defaulted on $541 million of bonds, filed for bankruptcy court protection from U.S. creditors as it liquidates in the Cayman Islands, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed its Chapter 15 petition late Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan as part of a restructuring agreement with petitioners seeking an involuntary filing last year. In November, Suntech told the court that the proposed action by U.S. creditors could derail restructuring efforts.

Sree Metaliks, a maker of sponge iron in Odisha, could well be the second company where promoters may end up relinquishing management control over loan default. Agarwals, the founders of the company, face the prospect of losing the company as its key lender, IFCI, plans to sell its convertible debentures to any bidder to recover its dues, the Economic Times reported. The move to change management of a defaulting company is rare and comes within a month of the Reserve Bank of India and finance ministry prodding lenders to chase away defaulting borrowers.

The Financial Markets Authority has dropped civil proceedings against four Lombard directors as the failed finance company's receivers have reached a $10 million settlement with the men, their insurers and an unnamed "third party", The New Zealand Herald reported. The receivers had made civil claims against the directors for alleged breach of duties but announced today a settlement had been reached.

National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB) fell in Sydney trading after flagging a possible increase in provisions at its British operations, overshadowing a 7 percent increase in first-quarter profit, Bloomberg News reported. Shares of Australia’s biggest bank by assets slid as much as 2.8 percent, the biggest intraday decline in three months, and traded 1.9 percent lower at A$34.50 at 11:53 a.m. in Sydney. Provisions for some tailored business loans and compensation to U.K. customers for wrongly sold payment-protection insurance may rise, the Melbourne-based lender said in a statement today.