The domestic shipping industry, which is already facing difficulty due to a long recession, has been hit by one of its biggest crises due to the collapse of Hanjin Shipping, the Korea Times reported in a commentary. Pressed by snowballing debt, Korea's largest shipper filed for court receivership in August last year. In an effort to stay afloat, the company sold its core assets, including vessels that operate on its lucrative Asia-U.S. route.

A debt default is generally not cause for celebration. Not defaulting, by contrast, should be a good thing. But in China, a lack of defaults has said more about inadequate processes for dealing with failing companies than it does about their financial health — not to mention a lack of political will to allow companies to fail. That is slowly changing. Lately, defaults have been rising as the government tries to restructure ailing state-owned enterprises, the Financial Times reported.

A South Korean court said on Thursday it decided to end Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd's court receivership process and expects to declare bankruptcy on February 17 after a two-week period for appeals, Reuters reported. The Seoul Central District Court said in a statement that it made the decision as the firm's liquidation value would be worth more than its value as a going concern. Hanjin Shipping, which had been the world's seventh-largest container shipper, applied for court receivership in late August after its creditor banks halted further support.

Indian banks could unlock as much as 650 billion rupees ($9.6 billion) worth of security receipts they hold, as the South Asian nation proposes to allow listing of the instruments the lenders received for selling delinquent debt, Bloomberg News reported.

A Chinese phone maker’s failure to repay around $166 million in bonds has rippled through the world’s largest internet investment marketplace, hitting investors who hadn’t even bought the securities, The Wall Street Journal reported. The default, by phone maker Cosun Group, is one of the most high-profile failures to hit China’s sprawling network of Internet-based financial firms. It is an embarrassment to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Sri Lanka's public debt repayments will grow to a record $4 billion in 2019, the finance ministry said, blaming "colossal borrowing" by the previous government, Reuters reported. "Sri Lanka is embroiled in a gigantic debt trap," Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said in a statement. The cost of repaying and servicing foreign-held debt will jump more than 32 percent this year to $2.42 billion from 2016's 1.83 billion, rising to $2.56 billion next year, it said.

U.K. Green Investment Bank Plc, the state lender put up for sale by the government, will be dramatically restructured if it’s sold to Macquarie Group Ltd., according to two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. Australian bank Macquarie, seen as one of the most likely buyers, would divide the Green Investment Bank, or GIB, into at least two units, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because discussions are confidential. One or more would manage existing loans while another would work on deals yet to reach financial close, the people said.

Drowning in debt, metals trader Sinosteel Corp. got an unprecedented lifeline last month from the Chinese government " a multibillion-dollar debt-for-equity rescue that could be the first of many for struggling state-owned companies, The New Zealand Herald reported on an AP story. China's economy is still growing relatively quickly, but a prolonged slowdown is raising fears that companies in many industries have borrowed and invested too much, too fast, posing a serious risk for the world's second-largest economy.

Forged seals, fake letters, and counterfeit documents. They’re all part of China’s recent spate of fraud coming to light in the country’s $3 trillion corporate debt market amid a rout that has analysts predicting a record number of defaults in 2017, Bloomberg News reported. As it becomes harder for Chinese companies to issue new notes to repay maturing debt, expect more scandals to come -- and to worsen the bond market’s already-precipitous downturn.

Homegrown premium seafood supply chain manager Oceanus Group has entered into a binding term sheet with its key creditors in relation to a proposed debt restructuring, The Business Times reported. This is done by converting 76.4 per cent of its total outstanding debt to equity, substantially improving its balance sheet, it announced on Wednesday before the market opens.