Asia Pacific

Tasmania's largest private ambulance service is facing insolvency, ABC News reported. Ambulance Private's owner blames the State Government and says Ambulance Tasmania will need millions of dollars to pick up the thousands of patients his company transports every year. A State Government review in 2007 recommended Ambulance Tasmania stop outsourcing non-emergency patient transport to private companies and set up its own business unit. As a result, Ambulance Private's managing director David Watson says his company will go under within a week.

The Indian Railways’ great “turnaround story”, which was making waves in business schools till a few months back, now appears headed towards an ignominious end, IndianExpress.com reported. A sharp decline in earnings and a serious escalation in expenditures are threatening to push India’s transport behemoth to near-bankruptcy.

One of China's biggest cities is finalizing plans for a new tax on high-end residential real estate, state media reported, a long-discussed measure to escalate the fight against rising property prices that have fueled frustration among the country's urban middle class, The Wall Street Journal reported. The mayor of Chongqing, Huang Qifan, has recommended approval of the tax by the municipal legislature, and the Chinese Ministry of Finance has approved the tax in principle, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday.

The Advanced Medical Institute, the failed erectile dysfunction firm infamous for its billboards, owed staff and creditors more than $50 million when it collapsed last month, the company's administrator says, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. And in a move to appease the competition regulator, unhappy customers will now also be able to obtain refunds more easily after the administrator extended the company's refund policy to 30 days.

Resona Holdings Inc., Japan’s fourth largest bank, will sell about 600 billion yen ($7.2 billion) of shares in a public offering this month to help repay government bailout funds, a person familiar with the situation said, Bloomberg reported.Resona will approve the plan at a board member meeting and announce the details of the sale today, the person said. Nomura Holdings Inc. and Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co. unit will underwrite the offering, the bank said in November when it registered to sell the shares.

The Chinese-backed investor trying to buy 20 New Zealand farms -- most linked to the Crafar family -- has protected its deal by pushing the terms of settlement for the purchase of 16 farms in receivership out to September 30 this year, The National Business Review reported. Natural Dairy NZ Holdings told the Hong Kong stock exchange that its advisers needed time to consider the decision by two New Zealand cabinet ministers to refuse overseas investment approval for the farm sales.

The developers of the luxury Quayside apartment complex in Whakatane have left a debt of almost $15 million, according to receivers, The National Business Review reported. Failed company Quayside Trustee's debts exceed $14.7m, too high to be offset by the sale of unsold apartments, which have been marked down substantially in a saturated Whakatane property market. Twenty-nine of the 43 apartments in the George Street complex remain unsold. They are being offered for sale at an average price of $380,000, or $11m for the lot. Prices have been reduced by $100,000 and more.

China's Vice Premier Li Keqiang said China will sign $7.3 billion worth of deals with Spain on Wednesday, according to a Spanish official, after reiterating Beijing's pledge to back the crisis-ridden European nation's austerity measures and offer of potential support for Spain's future fundraising, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr.

A silent partner in collapsed medical services firm Advanced Medical Institute Pty Ltd (AMI) has been linked to the disappearance of $118 million in superannuation finds to a Caribbean bank account, according to a Fairfax Media report, the Business Spectator reported. According to the report, American born Hong Kong trader Jack Flader controls a group with a 50 per cent interest in AMI. Mr Flader is allegedly the mastermind behind collapsed firm Astarra Strategic Fund, part of the Trio Capital group based in country New South Wales.

Rising food prices helped push China's consumer price index to a two-year high of 5.1% in November, and nowhere are the pressures felt more deeply than with cooking oil, more vital in Chinese cooking than even rice, The Wall Street Journal reported. Rising oil prices mean daily hardship for Chinese on meager incomes. And though food represents only about one-third of the CPI, it accounts for about 75% of the index's recent rise. Such price challenges are a primary reason China's central bank abruptly raised interest rates twice in 10 weeks, most recently on Christmas Day.