Asia Pacific

Japan Airlines Corp., once the world’s largest international carrier, is set to emerge from bankruptcy administration this week as a smaller company more reliant on Asian routes and global partners, Bloomberg reported. JAL has scaled back its global network, chopping 49 routes, including Sao Paulo, Amsterdam and Milan, and grounding the last remnants of what was the world’s largest Boeing Co. 747 fleet as it cuts 103 planes. The Tokyo-based airline, which holds its monthly press briefing at 5 p.m.

One of Australia's largest solar panel installers has gone into administration leaving debts understood to be worth millions of dollars and unfulfilled contracts with customers in Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, The Canberra Times reported. DCM Green went into voluntary administration on March 10. Administrator Alan Hayes said on Friday the company was insolvent, had ceased trading and all staff had been dismissed. He was investigating whether it would be possible to resurrect the company but it was too soon to tell.

Afghanistan’s government has agreed to wind down and sell off the embattled Kabul Bank to meet a condition imposed by the International Monetary Fund for resuming financial support to the country, an Afghan official said, the Financial Times reported. The IMF, backed by western donors, had demanded the government place the country’s biggest lender into receivership as part of a plan to shore up the financial system following the bank’s near-collapse last year.

Japan Airlines Corp is expected to complete restructuring its business, under court guidance, on Monday, the Nikkei business daily said. After filing for bankruptcy protection in January, last year, the airline has tried to turn around, backed by Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan (ETIC), Nikkei said. Restructuring measures, including cutting workforce by 16,000, worked and operating profit for the nine months through December stood at of 158.6 billion yen, the paper reported. On Monday, the company is slated to receive 254.9 billion yen from 11 lenders.

The vice chairman of the nation’s financial regulator hinted Thursday that the financial authorities are against the consolidation between Woori Investment & Securities and Daewoo Securities, The Korea Times reported. “I wonder if it will work efficiently when financial firms are combined just to beef up their size,” Kwon Hyouk-se, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), said in a meeting with reporters. The 54-year-old life-time bureaucrat is also a nominee for the governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the executive body of the FSC.

Members of the Vietnamese government will not be punished for problems at a state-owned shipbuilder whose debts threatened the country's global financial reputation, a top official said Monday, Agence France-Presse reported. Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung made the comments to the National Assembly, where some lawmakers last year said the government should be held accountable for the scandal at Vinashin (Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group).

Don Ha Real Estate, a Ray White Group franchise, has been placed in receivership. Don Ha is a former NBR Rich Lister and horse trader, The National Business Review reported. The extent of the company's financial woes will be revealed on May 20 in the first receiver's report. Ray White chief executive Carey Smith said receivers Grant Thornton had requested, and would receive, Ray White’s support in the receivership process.

The world’s most powerful central banks joined forces to sell billions of dollars worth of yen, battling speculators – described as “sneaky thieves” by one Japanese official – who have driven the currency to record highs, the Irish Times reported. The intervention by banks including the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan and Bank of England began early yesterday, after ministers from the Group of Seven most industrialised nations approved the first such co-ordinated action in more than a decade.

The Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into failed insurance broker Herbert Insurance Group, which was placed in receivership this month, The New Zealand Herald reported. SFO Director, Adam Feeley, said the office was investigating concerns about an apparent shortfall in the group's account, which hold clients' premiums. Feeley said the SFO was working closely with receivers, Korda Mentha, to identify all information relevant to the investigation. Herbert Insurance Group's client base of about 4000 has been sold to Aon New Zealand.

The Philippine central bank said on Thursday it placed Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank under receivership, saying 97 percent of depositors were fully covered by deposit insurance of up to 500,000 pesos ($11,400), Reuters reported. The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation started to take over Banco Filipino's head office and branches on Thursday afternoon to secure records and documents, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on its website. A Banco Filipino official said the bank had deposits of 17 billion pesos ($387 million) and 62 branches nationwide.