Asia Pacific

China's two-year push to drive down property prices has punished many of the nation's once highflying property developers and stymied a number of upscale projects, The Wall Street Journal reported. Real estate was once one of the nation's most successful industries. Some stocks of mainland property developers in Hong Kong more than doubled in 2009, faster than the Hang Seng Index's 50% gain that year. As a result, developers plowed billions of dollars into huge developments—with apartments, commercial space, pools and golf courses—outside top-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

Chinese banks are wrestling with rising funding costs both inside and outside China's borders, at a time when these banks are expected to lend more to bolster China when its trade and real-estate sectors are sagging, The Wall Street Journal reported. In China's interbank market, state-owned banks have seen a jump in the interest rates charged amongst themselves in recent days, leading the country's central bank to cut its bank-reserve requirements on Saturday, its second such move in four months. The reduction in reserve-requirement ratio, effective Feb.

The head of AerCap Holdings NV said Wednesday that it repossessed two planes from India's Kingfisher Airlines Ltd., underscoring the challenges facing aircraft leasing companies after the collapse of as many as a dozen carriers so far this year, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported. Kingfisher has grounded planes and is seen by analysts as the next potential casualty of the tough industry environment that has already claimed large carriers such as Hungary's Malev and Spanair in Spain.

Loss-making Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. has made a fresh appeal to its lenders for additional loans of INR2 billion ($40.59 million), less than a fourth of what it had asked earlier, in another effort to solve its severe cash crunch problem, a senior executive at one of the lending banks said Saturday, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported. "Most of Kingfisher's banks have declared its debt a non-performing asset, so the airline has asked the few banks which have not," the executive told Dow Jones Newswires without elaborating. He did not wish to be identified due to confidentiality norms.

India's aviation regulator asked Kingfisher Airlines to explain why it has cancelled a large number of flights since Saturday, while the government again ruled out providing any aid to the loss-making carrier, Reuters reported. Kingfisher has cancelled 32 out of the 240 flights that it operates each day, the airlines said on Saturday, adding that it expected to return to full service within days.

China took action to boost bank lending as it seeks to fine-tune economic policy to support growth, without giving up its recent gains in controlling inflation and property prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. The People's Bank of China said on Saturday that it will cut banks' reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage point, effective Feb. 24, in a move to help boost liquidity and support the economy. The reserve requirement ratio is the percentage of deposits that banks must hold in reserve rather than lend out.

Western investors in Japan's disgraced Olympus have accused its banks of trying to take control of the boardroom by stealth, amid media reports that the firm's major creditors are set to install their own appointees in the top jobs, Reuters reported. Foreign investors in the maker of cameras and medical equipment, engulfed last year by a $1.7 billion accounting fraud, have been arguing for a complete renewal of the board, including outside talent untainted by the scandal.

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard may be forced to follow U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke by increasing mortgage purchases as house prices slump and the nation’s biggest banks extend their grip on the home-loan market, Bloomberg reported. Non-bank lenders including Greater Building Society and CUA say more government purchases of residential mortgage-backed securities will be needed as Europe’s debt crisis saps investors’ appetite for risky assets.

Thousands of travelers were stranded Friday after budget airline Air Australia went into voluntary administration, immediately grounding its entire fleet, The Washington Post reported. The Brisbane-based international and domestic airline, formerly known as Strategic Airlines, said all flights had been canceled and the airline would not be accepting new bookings because it could no longer pay its bills. Voluntary administration in Australia is similar to bankruptcy protection in the U.S., and can buy a company time to trade out of its financial problems.

Fledgling carrier Air Australia yesterday hit out at rumours that ANZ Bank is considering winding up the company amid worries from some creditors about outstanding payments. A spokeswoman rejected suggestions parent company Strategic Group was being put into receivership or administration. She did not respond to suggestions the company was as much as $30 million in debt or that several creditors were chasing payments.