Asia Pacific

The corporate regulator is claiming success with its crackdown on the insolvency profession and says it will continue to be a key area of focus, The Australian reported. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has broken new ground by issuing its first annual report into the insolvency industry, identifying and describing recent enforcement actions in the wake of being granted additional funding to increase surveillance.

Indian banks Monday discussed proposed changes to the corporate debt restructuring mechanism to minimize their losses and ensure that founders of stressed companies have skin in the game, the Deal Journal India blog reported. The mechanism is a formal process aimed at achieving an agreement between a stressed company’s lenders to restructure its debt. The proposals ranged from asking founders to issue personal guarantees and pledging entire holdings to requiring stressed companies to give creditors seats on their boards, said R.K. Dubey, executive director at Central Bank of India. Mr.

The Chinese official was adamant the city of Weifang would keep its rayon factory open, noting that local authorities had just stepped in to help the plant's owner repay $60 million in commercial paper, Reuters reported. The bailout averted what would have been China's first ever bond default and was good news for domestic bond investors, who were reassured that in China even mid-sized state-owned firms can count on "too-big-to-fail" treatment.

A group of Elpida Memory bondholders opposes Micron Technology's offer to buy the bankrupt Japanese chipmaker and has reached out to South Korea's SK hynix and U.S.-based GlobalFoundries to ready a potential alternative plan, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said, Reuters reported. SK hynix, which had dropped out during the second and final round of bidding for Elpida, is interested in the memory chipmaker's Taipei operations, while GlobalFoundries is interested in its Hiroshima operations, said the source, who asked not to be identified.

A large Russian investment in a Waimate dairy processor has failed with receivers appointed to New Zealand Dairies, Stuff.co.nz reported. Plans to sell the $100 million Waimate dairy factory did not come off leading to the appointment of Colin Gower and Stephen Tubbs of BDO yesterday as receivers. Last month Christchurch company director Richie Smith, who advises the Russian owners, said the factory would keep processing milk as usual.

When growth in China's economy slows, government leaders typically call on state-owned banks to make loans to rev up activity. But that tactic may not work this time, The Wall Street Journal reported. Bank lending plunged in April, according to the People's Bank of China, and has remained weak in May, bankers and borrowers said. The decline owes to companies being wary about borrowing when demand is uncertain and profits are evaporating.

The Chinese economy is in a lot more trouble than headline GDP figures have indicated until now, the Financial Times reported. Less closely watched economic data released in recent days, including figures for electricity, rail cargo and bank loans, have all shown a steep drop in activity that appears to have caught policymakers by surprise. China’s GDP statistics are only released every three months and in the first quarter of this year they appeared to show a continuation of the gradual decline that has been under way for the past year.

Some immigration lawyers have seen a new increase in the number of Chinese seeking foreign citizenship, a trend they suggest is tied to worries about political turmoil and economic slowdown in China, especially among businesspeople and politicians seeking to protect their families and wealth, The Wall Street Journal reported. The recent interest builds on a trend of growth in applications from Chinese seeking to emigrate to places like the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

The Korea Housing Finance Corporation (HF) confirmed that more and more seniors are turning to reverse mortgages, an arrangement in which a homeowner borrows against the equity in his or her home and receives monthly payments from the lender, The Korea Times reported. It could be argued that reverse mortgages are a financial tool tailored made for Korea, which struggles to cope with a prolonged housing market slump, decaying employment situations, spiraling family debt and stagnant income. This has resulted in millions of over-50 Koreans marching blindly into retirement poverty.

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd has made a revised 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) bid for eircom, the Irish phone company granted court protection from creditors six weeks ago, according to sources familiar with the deal. Hutchison, the parent company of 3 Mobile, amended its offer after the court-appointed examiner overseeing Eircom's reorganization rejected an initial bid over the conditionality attached to it, Reuters reported. A tweaked bid, with some technical adjustments and no conditions, has been resubmitted, but it is still subject to due diligence said a source.