Asia Pacific

Sino-Forest Corp said on Tuesday it terminated a proposed asset sale, in favor of a plan that will result in the company's creditors acquiring all of its forestry assets, Reuters reported. The Chinese forestry company's shares plummeted in June 2011 after a short-seller accused it of exaggerating the size of its forestry assets. The company's stock has since been de-listed by the Toronto Stock Exchange and one of Canada's main securities regulators - the Ontario Securities Commission, recently charged the company and some of its former executives with fraud.

On July 1, the Gillard government quietly slipped through a set of laws designed to crack down on phoenix companies - those that collapse one day with a pile of debts and, like the bird in Greek mythology, rise from the ashes with the same assets and customers using a slightly different name. The fraudulent practice enables them to avoid taxes, wages and other bills, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Central banks around the world took major steps Thursday to stave off fears of global recession, with the European Central Bank slashing interest rates, China unexpectedly cutting bank lending rates and the Bank of England pumping billions of pounds into Britain’s stimulus program, The Washington Post reported. The measures reflect a growing sense of international urgency about faltering economies and underline the continued power of central banks to take unilateral measures to fight the crisis, even as elected policymakers haggle over their own long-term responses.

Sanko Steamship Co., the Japanese operator of 185 ships, asked a court to protect its U.S. assets after the company filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan, Bloomberg reported. Sanko listed assets and debt of more than $500 million in a Chapter 15 petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Companies use Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to protect their U.S. assets while they reorganize operations under the jurisdiction of a foreign bankruptcy court. Sanko said yesterday that the Tokyo District Court granted the closely held company permission to keep operating.

The second half of 2012 was supposed to be Cyprus’s time to shine. For the first time, the European Union’s third-smallest member state by population, just behind Malta and Luxembourg, is assuming the bloc’s rotating presidency – a perfect opportunity to show off its sandy beaches and get some issues that are close to its heart, such as an integrated maritime policy, on the EU’s agenda.

As India's growth rate fades, its banking system is developing bad habits. Debt restructurings are on the rise. And Indian banks have the lowest bad debt reserves in the Asia-Pacific region, Reuters reported. Without an improvement, the pressure to fudge the numbers will only increase. The Reserve Bank of India's Financial Stability report, released on June 29, said that banks remain comfortably capitalised, but the central bank is concerned about the deteriorating quality of the banks' loan books.

Micron Technology Inc. agreed to acquire troubled Japanese rival Elpida Memory Inc. for about $2.5 billion, as the U.S. memory maker bulks up to compete against rivals in South Korea and Taiwan, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal would make Micron No. 2 in the market for memory chips, second only to Samsung Electronics Co. Micron, based in Boise, Idaho, currently ranks third, behind SK Hynix Inc., another Korean company that until earlier this year was called Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

One of Japan's oldest shipping firms, Sanko Steamship, filed for bankruptcy on Monday after months of battling with ship owners over the restructuring of $2 billion in debt, becoming the latest casualty of the four-year-old shipping industry downturn, Reuters reported. The dry bulk and tanker shipping firm, started in 1934, joins U.S.-based General Maritime Corp, the Containership Company, and South Korea's Korea Line in seeking bankruptcy protection amid rock bottom freight rates, an oversupply of vessels and high bunker fuel prices.

Many Chinese exporters are starting to hoard the dollars they earn, betting that the yuan is unlikely to appreciate much more, a shift in strategy that is having a ripple effect throughout the country's financial system, The Wall Street Journal reported. Until recently, Chinese exporters like state-owned Huihong International Group and privately held Saijia Co. had rushed to sell their dollar earnings to banks as soon as they got paid, in exchange for the appreciating yuan.

A fifth euro zone country turned to Brussels for emergency funding on Monday when Cyprus announced it was seeking a lifeline for its banks and its budget, hours after Spain submitted a formal request to bail out its banks, Reuters reported. Global share prices and the euro slid as investors bet that European leaders - due to meet this week for the 20th time since the currency zone's debt crisis hit Greece in 2010 - would fail to come up with radical measures to back up weak countries.