Asia Pacific

Aston Metals Ltd., a mining exploration company owned by Nathan Tinkler, was placed in receivership as the latest piece of the former billionaire’s empire in Australia to be offered for sale to repay creditors, Bloomberg reported. John Park and Quentin Olde of FTI Consulting Inc. were appointed as receivers in Australia, according to a statement from the West Palm Beach, Florida-based company. Madison Pacific Trust Ltd., representing funds that hold Aston notes, named Park and Olde, according to an e-mail from FTI.

Banks face being hit with a new set of international capital rules aimed at forcing bondholders rather than taxpayers to bail out failing institutions, the Financial Times reported. Global regulators are seeking support from world leaders to draw up proposals to force banks to hold a minimum amount of debt that can be “bailed in” if a bank collapses.

Companies in exposed parts of Asia are facing a debt-repayment crunch as plunging local currencies make it more costly to repay foreign loans, a situation that is exacerbating stresses on the region's economies, The Wall Street Journal reported. Asian companies took out sizable foreign loans in recent years as the U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates low and printed money. For companies in nations like India and Indonesia, rates on U.S.-denominated debt were more attractive than local borrowing costs.

Malaysia raised fuel prices for the first time since 2010, joining neighboring Indonesia in curbing subsidies that have stretched government budgets and threatened investor confidence, Bloomberg reported. The price of the widely used RON 95 grade of gasoline will rise 20 sen to 2.10 ringgit ($0.64) a liter at midnight, according to an announcement by Prime Minister Najib Razak Monday in Putrajaya, outside of Kuala Lumpur. Diesel will increase 20 sen to 2 ringgit a liter.

Gippsland Secured Investments is expected to be placed in receivership today, owing 3500 investors about $150 million, after a last-ditch attempt to save the mortgage fund was rejected by the Federal Court, The Australian reported. A group of businessmen with close ties to Gippsland, including former Woolworths chairman John Dahlsen, had been battling to save the company from collapse in recent weeks.

Chinese bank executives signaled concern that bad loans could rise, as earnings continued to slow in the face of declining economic growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. China's biggest bank by assets, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. 601988.SH +0.76% said Thursday its first-half net profit rose 12.4% from a year earlier to 138.35 billion yuan ($22.62 billion). Bank President Yi Huiman said the bank would remain cautious against a potential pickup in bad loans after its non-performing loan ratio increased marginally over the first half of the year.

Major Chinese cities are turning to fresh measures to temper home-buyer enthusiasm amid a renewed surge in housing prices, but analysts say the moves are unlikely to halt the rise, The Wall Street Journal reported. Beijing's local housing bureau has made it tougher for property developers to presell apartments in recent weeks, giving approvals only to projects that have completed a sufficient amount of construction.

The owner of popular Australian fashion labels Ksubi, Insight and Something Else has been placed in voluntary administration, as the group prepare for a restructure, SmartCompany.com.au reported. Sydney-based company Bleach Group entered administration on August 27. It now has a new corporate ownership thanks to a share placement from an unnamed US private equity group. Bleach Group says the move was motivated by the closure of its Asian-based supply chain. "The need for a voluntary administration... is regrettable," chief executive Mark Byers said in a statement.

The young urban Chinese who have entered the workforce over the past decade grew up amid plenty, and their views about saving and spending bear little resemblance to those of their parents. Their willingness to borrow for today and worry about repayment tomorrow is beginning to reshape China’s debt dynamics, the Financial Times reported in an analysis. Of the three kinds of debt – government, corporate and household – the latter is barely on the radar as a risk in China. Household debt is about Rmb15tn ($2.5tn), or a third of gross domestic product, according to RBS.

Don't expect the Bank of Japan to come to the rescue if the sales-tax tussle triggers financial-market turmoil, people familiar with the bank's thinking say, The Wall Street Journal reported. Debate over the plan to double the sales tax in two stages starting in April has heated up over the past six weeks. Some advisers to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have called for him to postpone or moderate the increase, arguing that a higher tax burden would damp consumer spending and threaten economic recovery.