Asia Pacific

Foreign and domestic investors are preparing to pounce on bad debts held by Chinese banks—a potentially lucrative but risky area that has disappointed investors in the past, The Wall Street Journal reported. Specialist investors are starting to raise funds on the expectation that the country's lenders, under pressure to improve their balance sheets, will soon sell nonperforming loans. Distressed-debt investors buy bad loans from banks at a fraction of the amount the banks originally lent.

A radical new option for the financial rescue of Cyprus would force losses on uninsured depositors in Cypriot banks, as well as investors in the country’s sovereign bonds, according to a confidential memorandum prepared ahead of Monday’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers, the Financial Times reported. The proposal for a “bail-in” of investors and depositors, and drastic shrinking of the Cypriot banking sector, is one of three options put forward as alternatives to a full-scale bailout.

Struggling Japanese electronics maker Fujitsu is slashing 5,000 jobs, or nearly 3 percent of its global workforce, as it seeks to boost profitability by reshaping its computer-chip business and its overseas operations, the Associated Press reported. Fujitsu said Thursday the job cuts will be completed by the end of this fiscal year next month, and will rely on early retirement, layoffs and other methods. Details were undecided.

The breadth of a plan to narrow the gap between rich and poor, and the fact that it came out at all, heightened the sentiment that China's leaders may be ready to take on powerful interests quickly rather than laboriously trying to reach a broad consensus first, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Euro zone finance ministers will discuss on Monday a Cypriot proposal to order an independent report on whether the country is fully complying with laws against money laundering, a senior EU official said, Reuters reported. The report would be a response to German and others' concerns that Cyprus, which asked the euro zone for financial help last June, has been a tax haven for rich Russians.

A group representing contractors predicts some businesses will not survive Mainzeal Construction going into receivership, Radio New Zealand reported. The future of Mainzeal is unclear after the company was put in receivership on Wednesday, jeopardising the jobs of hundreds of employers as well as sub-contractors. Mainzeal is New Zealand's third largest construction firm, behind Fletcher Construction and Hawking, and has been involved in projects worth $7.5 billion throughout New Zealand since being founded in the late 1960s.

China has pledged to increase minimum wages and force state-owned companies to hand over more of their revenues to the public as part of a push to tackle growing inequality, the Financial Times reported. The chasm between China’s rich and poor is seen by analysts as a significant threat to political stability, with discontent over inequality spilling over into angry online comment and, on occasion, street protests. Unveiling a 35-point plan on Tuesday, the State Council, or cabinet, said it wanted to lift as many as 80m people from poverty by 2015.

Credit Suisse Group AG will accept a debt restructuring plan that Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group put to its creditors, helping to resolve negotiations surrounding a default that occurred more than two years ago, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Swiss lender sent a letter to about 20 other creditors of the Hanoi-based company, telling them it plans to accept the proposal and outlining the rationale for them to do the same, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

China's banks and other lenders have extended hundreds of billions of dollars to Chinese companies over the past two years, helping them weather sluggish foreign demand in many industries as well as slowing growth at home, The Wall Street Journal reported. Analysts at Standard Chartered PLC estimate that Chinese corporate debt was equivalent to 128% of gross domestic product by the end of 2012, up from 101% at the end of 2009.

In a growing sign of companies facing difficulties in meeting their financial obligations, banks were approached for debt restructuring in a record 126 cases during 2012 for a collective amount of Rs 84,000 crore (over USD 15 billion), The Indian Express reported. During the last quarter ended December 31, 2012 itself, a total number of 25 cases were referred for Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) for an aggregate amount of over Rs 20,000 crore, shows the data available with the CDR cell of bankers.