Shipping operator Korea Line Corp. won a contest for some assets of bankrupt Hanjin Shipping Co., whose collapse in late August stranded billions of dollars in cargo at sea, disrupting supply chains world-wide, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a surprise decision, a Seoul court on Monday awarded Korea Line, a midsize bulk-shipping operator, the first right to purchase the assets of Hanjin’s Asia-U.S. route, as well as its stake in a California terminal.

In one of the most audacious experiments in India’s modern history, Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned the two largest bills — of 500 rupees, or about $7.50, and 1,000 rupees — which account for about 86 percent of the currency in a country where 78 percent of financial transactions are done in cash. Under the plan, people are allowed to exchange the old bills for new ones of 500 and 2,000 rupees, but only at banks or post offices, where their exchanges will be monitored and anyone with a large amount of cash will have to explain its source.

South Korean shipbuilder STX Offshore and Shipbuilding has had its debt restructuring plan approved by its creditors, allowing it to continue operating, IHS Jane’s reported. The company, which owns a major commercial and naval shipyard in Saint-Nazaire in France, is currently being offered for sale by a bankruptcy court overseeing the claims of organisations, which had provided the company with an increasing amount of credit.

China removed its high-profile, reformist finance minister from the post in a shuffle that comes as President Xi Jinping positions trusted allies in key roles and Beijing prioritizes short-term growth over major overhauls, The Wall Street Journal reported. The shuffle put more senior government posts in the hands of Xi loyalists ahead of a twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress next fall that will shape policy for years to come. Mr.

South Korea said on Tuesday that 94 out of 97 Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd's container ships have completed unloading as of Nov. 7, Reuters reported. Of the remaining 3 ships, two ships will be unloaded as soon as possible while relevant authorities are in talks with Shanghai port authorities to unload one seized ship in Shanghai, the country's finance ministry and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said in a joint statement. Hanjin filed for court receivership on Aug. 31 after its creditors cut off financial support for the firm.

Four parties have expressed interest in buying one or both of South Korea's STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co Ltd and a controlling stake in STX France SA, a spokesman for the Seoul court overseeing STX Offshore's receivership said on Friday. The Seoul Central District Court spokesman declined to comment on the names of the parties. The South Korean court in October decided to allow the two units of the collapsed STX shipbuilding group to be sold either separately or together.

Insolvent Australian industrial group Arrium Ltd's U.S. based Moly-Cop division has been sold to private equity firm American Industrial Partners for $1.23 billion, two sources close to the deal said, ending a drawn out sale process, Reuters reported. "I can confirm it is American Industrial Partners," one source said. Moly-Cop, which makes steel balls to grind ore and operates mostly in the United States and Latin America, also attracted interest from KPS Capital, a private equity limited partnerships with about $5.5 billion of assets under management.

Creditors of Guangxi Nonferrous Metals Group have vetoed an insolvency plan in a case that shows the obstacles that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) face as they try to complete the bankruptcy process, Caixin Online reported. In the plan, the firm's bankruptcy administrators proposed auctioning, presumably at a discount, not only the equity stakes the parent has in its seven subsidiaries but also the debts that the subsidiaries owe to the parent, according to several of the firm’s creditors who voted on the bankruptcy plan on Oct. 28.

U.S. buyout firm KKR & Co is no longer in the bidding to buy Takata Corp, the Japanese parts maker at the center of the world's biggest auto recall, according to a person briefed on the bidding process. KKR did not attend meetings last week between bidders and the carmakers key to Takata's survival, the source told Reuters. The four other bidding groups include Bain Capital, a U.S. buyout firm that teamed up with Japanese chemical maker Daicel Corp, sources have said.

A succession of asset bubbles has formed in China, caused by a torrent of speculative money sloshing from stocks to bonds to commodities, The Wall Street Journal reported. The biggest apparent bubble is in housing, but prices have surged for niche assets, too, such as calligraphy, antiques and art. In May, futures prices for soybean meal, used as pig feed, jumped 40%. The trading volume of 600 million tons was nine times higher than China’s annual consumption. The pipe-making material PVC is up 40% so far this year on the Dalian Commodity Exchange.