Noble Group Ltd., the commodity trader battling to survive, warned that it’ll report another vast loss including from the operations meant to sustain a revamped business, and while it signaled progress in debt-restructuring talks, hurdles to a deal remain, Bloomberg News reported. The Hong Kong-based company will report a net loss of $1.73 billion to $1.93 billion for the final quarter of last year, potentially bringing losses for 2017 to almost $5 billion, it said in a statement early on Monday. That meant it had a negative net-asset position of $650 million to $850 million at Dec. 31.

Edwin Wong, the chief investment officer of Hong Kong-headquartered SSG Capital Management and an ex-Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. banker, sees a multitude of opportunities in India as the nation pushes ahead with a bankruptcy system overhaul, Bloomberg News reported. There was further evidence of that this week, with the Reserve Bank of India introducing a time line for the country’s banks to recast bad loans and also scrapping previous methods.

Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla and an investor group led by Dalmia Bharat Ltd. are emerging as the lead bidders for India’s Binani Cement Ltd., which is being sold under the country’s insolvency process, people with knowledge of the matter said. Birla’s UltraTech Cement Ltd. and the Dalmia Bharat consortium have each made cash offers of around 60 billion rupees ($936 million), the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private, Bloomberg News reported.

Just when many Indian banks thought the worst of their bad debt woes were behind them, new central bank rules are stoking fears that the worst of the soured-loans buildup is yet to come, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The central bank surprised the financial sector this week by halting all of its existing loan-restructuring mechanisms with immediate effect, and rolling out new rules that will push more debt defaulters into bankruptcy courts.

S&P Global Ratings stepped up its scrutiny of HNA Group Co. by cutting its credit assessment for the second time in less than three months as the debt-laden Chinese conglomerate renewed a defense of its "very healthy" finances, Bloomberg News reported. Late Tuesday, S&P said it lowered HNA’s unofficial credit score by two notches to ccc+, or seven levels deep into junk territory, citing the group’s deteriorating liquidity profile.

Chinese deal makers that racked up debts for overseas deals and are now reversing course to pay down borrowings have attracted the attention of restructuring specialists, Bloomberg News reported. As President Xi Jinping steps up leverage curbs, borrowing costs in China have jumped. The nation’s most high-profile deal makers including HNA Group Co. have come under mounting regulatory scrutiny, and have been selling assets as they try to rein in borrowings.

Companies controlled by Chinese local governments have avoided defaulting on their bonds so far. They will not continue to be so lucky, the Financial Times reported. Officials are taking a regulatory axe to the implicit supports that have allowed hundreds of local government financing vehicles to stagger on.

Capital market regulator Sebi will meet credit rating agencies this week to explore ways to have quicker access to information on loan defaults by corporates, The Economic Times reported. With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) having so far refused to share the sensitive information beyond the banking industry, Sebi is keen that all rating agencies take membership of credit information companies (CICs) to obtain default data that banks have to report to CICs. Many corporates as well as banks are reluctant to share default information with rating agencies.

India’s central bank late on Monday tightened its rules around bank loan defaults, seeking to push more large loan defaulters toward bankruptcy courts and abolishing half a dozen existing loan-restructuring mechanisms, in its latest bid to accelerate resolution of the bad loans problem at Indian banks, Reuters reported. The new set of rules are aimed at creating a “harmonised and simplified generic framework” for resolution of stressed assets in view of new bankruptcy regulations, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said late on Monday.

ArcelorMittal is competing with a consortium led by Russia’s VTB Group as bids come in for Essar Steel India Ltd., the largest distressed steelmaker being sold under the country’s insolvency process, people with knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg News reported. An Indian unit of ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest producer of the alloy, submitted an offer, it confirmed in a statement Monday. Essar Steel could fetch a valuation of at least $6 billion in a sale, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.