Asia Pacific

The reform of the UAE's insolvency framework is at the centre of government plans to address vulnerabilities in the country's financial system, a top official said on Sunday, ArabianBusiness.com reported. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of the Supreme Fiscal Committee and chairman of Emirates Group, said "urgent steps" were being taken to address gaps in the UAE's legal and regulatory infrastructure.

Dubai World's agreement with its core bank creditors to extend maturities on loan repayments and pay back debt at likely lower interest rates sets an example of how Dubai and Greece could manage their debt problems, Deutsche Bank's (DB) chief executive in the Middle East and North Africa said Friday. "They started a process, the market is favourable, it's an indication of how things should be done," Henry Azzam told Zawya Dow Jones on the sidelines of an economic forum in Lebanon.

Australia’s planned 40 percent tax on mining profits has set a benchmark for other countries weighing higher levies, reducing earnings forecasts for BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group and the attraction of mining stocks, Bloomberg reported. Mining companies’ earnings may be cut by almost a third when the tax starts in 2012, Moody’s Investors Services said this week. The tax would be broadly credit negative for the sector and raise uncertainty for some companies over the short- to-medium term, Moody’s said this month.

Dozens of out-of-pocket Blue Chip investors packed into Auckland District Court this afternoon had mixed reactions when Mark Bryers, the man they trusted with their lost cash, was fined a total of $33,750 and ordered to do 75 hours community work, The National Business Review reported. Bryers (52), a bankrupt who has lived and worked in Sydney since 2007, faced 34 charges prosecuted by the Ministry of Economic Development for breaching the Companies Act and the Financial Reporting Act. Bryers’ Blue Chip empire collapsed in 2008, owing more than 2000 investors more than $84 million.

Hong Kong bankruptcy petitions in April fell about 18 percent from March, but were down 48 percent from a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. Petitions totalled 770 in April, down from a high of 1,872 recorded in March 2009 when the economy was hit hard by the global financial crisis. Hong Kong pulled out of recession in the second quarter of last year. Hong Kong's economy expanded 8.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010, compared with the year-earlier period. The government has forecast GDP growth for Hong Kong of between 4 and 5 percent for 2010.

Dubai World has agreed economic terms with its main creditors over the most controversial aspect of the state-owned company’s $23.5 billion debt restructuring, providing hope that the major drag on the emirate’s economy can be removed quickly, the Financial Times reported. The troubled conglomerate said on Thursday that the holding company’s co-ordinating committee of financial creditors, representing 60 per cent of the debt owed to lenders, had agreed in principle terms on the $14.4bn owed by the holding company in a proposal presented at the end of March.

The first meeting of creditors to Clive Peeters Ltd is expected no later than May 28 after the discount appliance retail was placed into voluntary administration by its banker National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB), the Business Spectator reported on an Australian Associated Press story. The move comes just two weeks after Clive Peeters warned that deteriorating sales would lead to four months of operating losses. McGrathNicol was appointed voluntary administrators for the company and its controlled entities on Wednesday after executives from Clive Peeters met NAB officials.

A company which manages investment schemes in the Great Southern and around Western Australia has gone into administration, ABC News reported. Rewards Group Limited manages plantations of native Sandalwood near Narrogin and stone fruit and grapefruit orchards in Dandaragan and Kununurra. The company has been unable to pay debt amounting to tens-of-millions-of-dollars and is in the process of defending a multi-million dollar law suit from former Westpoint director Richard Beck. It's the fourth managed investment scheme in Australia to collapse in the past 18 months.

Auckland-based property financier Viaduct Capital has been placed into receivership, owing $7.8 million to investors, The National Business Review reported. While the Treasury booted Viaduct Capital out of the retail deposit guarantee scheme last April, approximately $7.3 million of secured debentures are still covered by the guarantee. The balance – just $500,000 – is unguaranteed. The guarantee was still valid for deposits made up until the withdrawal of the guarantee on April 20, 2009. The withdrawal forced Viaduct to cancel a prospectus seeking $50 million.

Creditors for the Riverland freight business, Fletcher's Freighters, will meet today to discuss the company's future, after the owner Barry Fletcher was made redundant, ABC News reported. Fletchers Freighters went into voluntary administration in March this year, to allow more time to developing a restructuring plan. But less than two-months on, interstate depots in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne have closed. Administrator McGrathNicol says there are about 100 workers left with the company, although the recent loss of a contract with National Foods cut 40 per cent of the freighter's business.