Asia Pacific

The government on Friday said it would take three months to finalise the financial restructuring plan of cash-strapped national carrier Air India. "The exercise of finalising the financial restructuring plan and restructuring of loans would take about three months," civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi told the Lok Sabha in a written reply, the Hindustan Times reported. Ravi's reply comes just a few days ahead of a crucial meeting of a ministerial panel headed by finance inister Pranab Mukherjee.

China signaled that it intends to take a more active role in trying to calm chaotic global and domestic markets, pumping cash into its banking system and allowing its tightly controlled currency to climb higher for a fourth straight day, The Wall Street Journal reported. There was a widespread belief among domestic investors that the country's state pension fund had started heavily buying shares. That perception reversed a sharp fall in the Shanghai stock market and helped it to close higher in a tumultuous trading session. As the U.S.

As U.S. and European sovereign-debt concerns menace some of the world's biggest financial institutions, their Japanese counterparts are seen as less vulnerable given their small exposure, The Wall Street Journal reported. But other potential problems are growing, and could eventually end in a cascade, some industry observers say. "Japanese banks' exposure to European sovereign debts is small, so even in a pessimistic scenario, the risk of losses is limited," said Akira Takai, an analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets, in a recent report.

Commercial printer Blue Star Group has won the support of bond holders for a debt restructuring after saying the alternative was receivership, but the "close call" for hundreds of workers has angered the union representing them, The New Zealand Herald reported. Bond holders voted 76.9 per cent in favour of the refinancing proposal, surpassing the 75 per cent required.

The chairman of the $75 billion Future Fund has warned the debt crisis engulfing Europe and the United States could take at least 20 years to resolve, causing ongoing market volatility, The Australian reported. David Murray warned the post-global financial crisis environment would continue to be characterised by a series of market shocks, with investor uncertainty heightened by concerns over the ability of political systems to contain any emerging meltdown.

Receivers for Yarrows the Bakers say the business has attracted considerable interest from potential buyers as their first report highlights significant debt across the wider group, The National Business Review reported. Yarrows the Bakers and two associated companies went into receivership in May when the company’s directors could not reach agreement on a restructure proposal that involved selling its Australian business.

The U.S. credit-rating downgrade is piling more pressure on China to move away from an export-reliant economy that has produced mountains of currency reserves in declining dollars, though Chinese politicians, like those in Washington, often struggle to confront tough policy decisions needed to drive change, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some analysts say that harsh Chinese rhetoric aimed at the U.S. following the downgrade of U.S.

Shadow broker Kinetic Securities is to appoint administrators Monday in a collapse its directors blame on the global financial crisis, sluggish post-GFC low-volume market conditions and increasing regulatory requirements, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The appointment of voluntary administrators, expected to be Ferrier Hodgson, comes just weeks after the corporate regulator suspended its Australian Financial Services Licence then reinstated it and follows a move by a creditor to wind it up.

Yet another fashion retailer has collapsed in the midst of the worst trading conditions in 50 years, with Brown Sugar placed in voluntary administration putting the future of 50 full-time staff and 170 part-time crew in doubt, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Deloitte Corporate Reorganisation Group, Sal Algeri and Tim Norman, have been named as joint voluntary administrators to the clothing group which has 40 stores in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said it settled $20 billion of intercompany claims with liquidators for Lehman Hong Kong and won the affiliate’s support for its liquidation plan, Bloomberg reported. Details of the agreement, which is subject to court approval in the U.S. and Hong Kong, weren’t provided in Lehman’s statement today. Edward Middleton, a partner at KPMG China and one of the Hong Kong liquidators, said in the statement that the settlement will benefit creditors by speeding liquidations.