South Korea's KEPCO, the likeliest suitor for Toshiba Corp's troubled nuclear business, is holding off from making an approach because of question marks over the scale of damage at the unit and political uncertainty in both South Korea and the United States, people with direct knowledge of the matter say, Reuters reported. Japanese TV-to-rail conglomerate Toshiba has been battered by a $6.3 billion hit from overruns in the nuclear business and has widened a probe into governance failures at its U.S.-based unit, Westinghouse. It is now considering a sale.

Shares in Takata sank on Wednesday amid reports the troubled airbag maker might let its customers decide on how to restructure the company as it attempts to survive a crisis over its exploding airbags, the Financial Times reported. The Japanese company may have little choice other than to let carmakers decide on its fate, which could involve filing for bankruptcy through court as part of its restructuring process, Bloomberg said citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.

South Korea’s financial authorities are considering a new bailout package for troubled shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. that includes haircuts for bondholders and fresh loans, people directly involved in the matter said, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Financial Services Commission, Korea’s main financial regulator, wants the yard’s creditors to write down 20% to 30% of its debt in addition to banks lending it another 3 trillion won ($2.68 billion), according to the people involved.

The founder and a former executive of China Medical Technologies Inc. were charged in the U.S. with stealing more than $400 million from investors in the bankrupt maker of medical diagnostic tests as part of a seven-year scheme, Bloomberg News reported.

Eighteen foreign banks, including Standard Chartered Plc., Barclays Plc. and Deutsche Bank AG, have agreed to restructure loans to the tune of $550 million given to Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), two people aware of the development said, Livemint reported. The lenders agreed to a moratorium of between three and five years on repayments after meeting JSPL chairperson Naveen Jindal earlier this month, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. Last year, JSPL failed to meet the repayment schedule for the April-June quarter due to stressed cash flows.

Default fears are resurfacing in Singapore ahead of a wall of maturing corporate debt, as a U.S. bankruptcy filing by a firm from the city flags lingering pain despite economic recovery, Bloomberg News reported. Pressure to pay down obligations has been unrelenting. Companies excluding banks must repay S$38 billion ($27 billion) of local bonds over the next four years.

Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said growth prospects have improved in the world's second-largest economy, but its monetary policy remains prudent and neutral, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Earlier this week, China published upbeat data showing its economy got off to a strong start to 2017, supported by bank lending, a government infrastructure spree and a long-sought resurgence in private investment.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) lifted borrowing costs in step with the Fed overnight, the Financial Times reported. But the real question is: can China’s economy handle this sort of tightening at this stage in its cycle? Diana Choyleva of Enodo Economics (one of the few economists to accurately forecast the yuan’s depreciation) believes it can’t. On one hand the PBoC is lifting rates, on the other, it’s been engaged in the injection of a record amount of liquidity over the last year to prevent market rates from rising organically.

Investors trying to make sense of China’s National People’s Congress last week and its relation to the more important 19th Party Congress to be held later this year should familiarize themselves with an old saying: “The mountains are high and the emperor is far away.” Orders from Beijing are often ignored in the cities and provinces. Instead, important decisions such as whether and how to restructure the debt of insolvent local governments and state-owned enterprises are made locally, a Bloomberg View reported.

Nagpur-based Gupta Coal India has filed for insolvency at the National Company Law Tribunal. The petition says there are liabilities of Rs2,580 crore towards eight major banks, the Business Standard reported. A source told this newspaper, “Allahabad Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Union Bank of India, Vijaya Bank, IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank and Bank of India are lenders.” Gupta Coal supplied to power generating companies, including Monnet Ispat Energy. This is one of the biggest amounts in question in a petition fied since the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code took effect.