Korean Company Sambo Motors Co. Ltd has taken control of German tuning company Carlsson, GTSpirit.com reported. The Korean company has promised further investment for the Saarland Merzig company and has sought to reassure Carlsson’s employees that their jobs are secure. Sambo was one of four bidders to made a binding offer during the insolvency process. Carlsson entered into liquidation in April this year following a poor year of sales.

An IT distribution company that has operated for almost 20 years has collapsed into voluntary administration, SmartCompany.com.au reported. Altech Computers was established in 1997 and has offices and warehouses in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland and Hong Kong. The business featured in BRW’s Fast 100 for several years between 2004 and 2006, coming in at number 100 in 2005 with turnover of more than $63 million for the 2004-05 financial year. Altech Computers was also named Microsoft’s Australian distribution partner of the year in 2008.

Canberra building subcontractors left tens of millions of dollars out of pocket by insolvencies and payment disputes are hoping and praying a Senate Committee will come to their rescue, The Canberra Times reported. The report of the Senate's Economics References Committee inquiry into insolvency in the construction industry is due to be tabled on Thursday afternoon. Wayne Richards said his Queanbeyan based Erincole Building Services lost more than $1 million in a dispute with the John Holland Group, the lead contractor on the National Portrait Gallery.

China Shanshui Cement warned investors it will default on more than $300 million of onshore debt payments due on Thursday and will seek to appoint liquidators, a sign Chinese authorities are more willing to let weak firms fail, Reuters reported. The privately controlled company, with a market capitalisation of $2.7 billion, has felt the squeeze from falling demand in a sector struggling with overcapacity as the giant economy shifts gears. It reported a 31 percent decline in revenues and a net loss for the first half of the year.

As China's economy slows and Beijing becomes more relaxed about letting its companies fail, a rising number of foreign bondholders risk being caught up in the country's unpredictable court system, Reuters reported. Last month, solar producer Baoding Tianwei Group became China's first ever state-owned company to default on a bond coupon payment, showing Beijing's increasing willingness to let companies go bust in a bid to reform its corporate market. Also in April, Kaisa Group became the first Chinese property developer to fail to pay a coupon on its U.S.

Published data would suggest Indonesian banks are holding up well, in spite of the commodity downturn, a lack of diversification in the economy and protracted currency weakness. But there is good reason to believe such data do not tell the full story. While the true extent of stress is hard to gauge, it is unlikely that medium-sized banks, in particular, will be able to maintain healthy profits for long, according to FT Confidential Research, an FT investment research service.

China’s “national team” owns at least 6 per cent of the mainland stock market as a result of the massive state-sponsored rescue effort this year to prop up share prices following the summer equity market crash, the Financial Times reported. One member of the team, China Securities Finance Corp, the main conduit for the injection of government funds, owned 742 different stocks at the end of September, up from only two at the end of June. CSF was one of a number of government rescue funds that were corralled into buying shares when stock markets went into meltdown over the summer.

Policy makers in Seoul are accelerating efforts to restructure debt-laden and unprofitable companies before an anticipated rise in U.S. interest rates and any further slowdown in China reverberates in South Korea, Bloomberg News reported. Falling exports and huge losses among some of Korea’s corporate giants have injected urgency into efforts to sell poorly performing assets and raise competitiveness. Overseas shipments have dropped every month this year, with notable weakness in sales to China.

The Bankruptcy Law Reforms Committee (BLRC), while submitting its report to the government earlier this month, had recommended the need for a single code to resolve insolvency for all companies, limited liability partnerships, partnership firms and individuals, The Business Standard reported in a commentary. "In order to ensure legal clarity, the Committee recommends that provisions in all existing law that deals with insolvency of registered entities be removed and replaced by this Code," the committee said in its report.

China said it cracked the nation’s biggest “underground bank,” which handled 410 billion yuan ($64 billion) of illegal foreign-exchange transactions, as the authorities try to combat corruption and rein in capital outflows that have hit records this year, Bloomberg News reported. More than 370 people have been arrested or face lawsuits or other punishment in the case centered in eastern Zhejiang province, the official People’s Daily reported on Friday, citing police officials.