Asia Pacific

A $100 million resort complex in Queensland owned by developer and marina group Meridien has been placed into voluntary administration, SmartCompany.com.au reported. The 124-unit One Bright Point project, of which 114 apartments have been sold, is now being looked after by BRI Ferrier, which will look to sell the remaining apartments. It’s understood the project was hit by the weakened property market, troubles in the tourism industry, the Queensland natural disaster and the strong Australian dollar.

Financial regulators' decision to close seven troubled savings banks earlier this week spawned dramatic scenes of angry depositors outside locked branch offices and, on Friday, the suicide of an executive at one of the closed-down institutions, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The savings-bank industry, with just over 100 institutions and 2.4% of the nation's financial assets, is a small niche in South Korea's financial industry.

China's massive economic-stimulus program has supported near double-digit growth, but also Suncity Co , a condominium developer based in Japan's quake-hit northeast, said it filed for bankruptcy protection with the Sendai District Court on Monday with 24.9 billion yen ($326.5 million) in liabilities after sales plunged in the wake of the March disaster, Reuters reported. Investment firm FinTech Global said it would back Suncity's restructuring. Suncity, which employs 159 people, said that it plans to delist its shares from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Sir Michael Fay says his group's bid for the Crafar farms remains on the table despite being rejected by the receivers yesterday, The New Zealand Herald reported. The group's $171.5 million offer is almost $30 million short of that from China's Pengxin International Group. KordaMentha receiver Brendon Gibson said the accepted Pengxin offer was by far the best offer and remained so. Regarding Fay's offer, he said: "It was conditional and a collaboration of several companies and was a price that we think was unacceptable, so no go on any of those fronts.

China's massive economic-stimulus program has supported near double-digit growth, but also stoked inflation, piled up debt and fueled another unwelcome development: social unrest, The Wall Street Journal reported. In 2010, China was rocked by 180,000 protests, riots and other mass incidents—more than four times the tally from a decade earlier. That figure, reported by Sun Liping, a professor at Tsinghua University, rather than official sources, doesn't tell the whole story on the turmoil in what is now the world's second-largest economy.

Wellington businessman and former Phoenix football owner Terry Serepisos has been declared bankrupt in the High Court at Wellington after his last-minute bid for more time to pay debts was rejected, The New Zealand Herald reported. Judge Gendall granted an application by South Canterbury Finance, owed some $22.5 million, to declare Serepisos bankrupt after he failed to convince the court to grant him four more days to secure funding from a Hong Kong-based merchant bank.

As the Gillard government digests a set of submissions on how to clean up the insolvency industry after a Senate inquiry found the Australian Securities and Investments Commission was not regulating it properly, Senator John Williams has put the spotlight back on the commission using parliamentary privilege to do so, The Sydney Morning Herald reported in a commentary.

European banks are fanning out across Asia, seeking to borrow money from wealthy individuals and cash-rich companies in a race to replace funding sources that are becoming harder and more expensive to tap, The Wall Street Journal reported. Rather than make loans and do deals, bankers from France, Italy and other countries are under orders to find sources of funding. While they are having some success, people with knowledge of their efforts say, they aren't raising enough to make a difference, leaving the banks still struggling to fund their assets.

After months of turmoil, there finally seems to be some respite for debt laden Koutons Retail India Ltd, the Economic Times reported. The debt restructuring plan for the apparel manufacturer has been finalised and the lenders will meet next week for the final approval, according to sources familiar with the development told ET Now. The company's total debt is Rs 660 crore out of which the long term debt of Rs 500 crore that will be payable over a period of 10 years including a 2 year moratorium.

Financial companies saw their number of delinquent customers increase by nearly 200,000 this year as more people struggle to repay debt amid the alarming deterioration of family finances, The Korea Times reported. The default rates for households approved by commercial banks have surpassed the level shown during recent financial crises, and an increasing number of small- and medium-sized companies are sinking under a sea of red, industry figures show.