India’s largest cement maker, UltraTech Cement Ltd., aims to aggressively cut its debt over the next two years to help prepare for more acquisitions, Bloomberg News reported. UltraTech, controlled by billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, plans to prepay some loans through its internal cash accruals, according to Chief Financial Officer Atul Daga. It targets to cut the ratio of its net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to 1 time by 2020, from 2.3 times currently, Daga said in an interview Thursday in Mumbai.

Noble Group Ltd said more creditors backed its debt restructuring agreement, making it difficult for those who opposed the deal to try and wind up the company, after it defaulted on a $394 million bond that matured this week, Reuters reported. The Singapore-listed commodity trader is seeking a $3.4 billion debt restructuring seen as critical for the beleaguered firm’s survival. But the deal has been opposed by some bondholders and shareholders, including Goldilocks Investment Co, which has an 8.1 percent stake in the firm.

India may allow more time for the restructuring plans of defaulting companies to be approved, according to people with knowledge of the matter, as a slew of lawsuits from owners, lenders and bidders slows the insolvency process and tests a new bankruptcy law, Bloomberg News reported. The rules mandate that a bad-loan resolution plan must be agreed upon within 270 days, failing which they require liquidation of the company’s assets.

The world’s poorest countries are increasing their borrowing at a worrying pace and face the mounting risk of debt crises, the IMF has warned. Since 2013, the median ratio of public debt to gross domestic product in low-income countries has risen 13 percentage points to hit 47 per cent in 2017, according to new research by the IMF. The research found that 40 per cent of low-income developing countries face “significant debt-related challenges”, up from 21 per cent just five years ago, the Financial Times reported.

As China’s President Xi Jinping steps up efforts to rein in excessive borrowing, the nation’s corporate bond market faces rising default risks as weaker firms and local borrowers struggle to roll over obligations, Bloomberg News reported. The latest salvo came last month, when the top economic planning body said it will step up scrutiny of the public works-related assets held by companies seeking to sell bonds. The National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC, also said it would further regulate bond sales by public-private partnership projects.

China is likely to extend an agreement providing crisis-stricken Venezuela with favourable loans repayment terms but will not lend fresh funds to President Nicolas Maduro's government, according to sources in Caracas and Beijing familiar with the situation. During a decade, China plowed more than $50 billion into the OPEC member's coffers through oil-for-loan agreements that helped Beijing secure energy supplies for its fast-growing economy while bolstering an anti-Washington ally in Latin America, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

The cost of Noble Group Ltd.’s restructuring is likely to top $100 million, another financial burden for the cash-strapped commodities trader that has defaulted on its bonds, Bloomberg News reported. The estimated price tag for advisers and other expenses, based on disclosures in regulatory filings, is approaching the company’s entire market value of $114 million as Noble pays fees to the company’s creditors and foots much of the bill for the 11 law firms, investment banks and public relations consultants working on the restructuring.

South Korean shipbuilders aren’t out of the woods yet even as orders begin recovering, with the smaller ones facing collapse in the absence of government support, according to a shipping-debt trader, Bloomberg News reported. The government will aid larger shipyards through ways such as giving them orders for the next few years, under its support policy for the shipping and shipbuilding industries, said Soo Cheon Lee, co-founder and chief investment officer of SC Lowy, a Hong Kong-based loan and bond trading firm.

UltraTech Cement Ltd. has signed an “in-principle” pact with Binani Industries Ltd. to buy its holdings of a distressed unit as India’s largest cement maker attempts to beat out a Bain-backed consortium, which earlier made the winning bid in ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, Bloomberg News reported. UltraTech, controlled by billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, said it had agreed to pay 72.7 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) for a 98.43 percent stake in Binani Cement Ltd. “subject to termination of” the insolvency proceedings that are underway, according to an exchange filing. The Dalmia Bharat Ltd.

Noble Group Ltd. is racing against time to garner enough votes for a debt restructuring plan after its decision not to pay a $379 million bond due Tuesday sets it on course for its first note default, Bloomberg News reported. The failed payment is set to prompt an “event of default” under the terms of its bond documents. The company has opted for non-payment to preserve assets “for the benefit of all stakeholders during the implementation of the proposed restructuring,” it said in a filing Friday.