Asia Pacific

A trustee yesterday moved against one of the country's largest property businesses, putting it into receivership. Finance company St Laurence, which owes 9000 investors $245 million, had proposed investors take a shareholding in the company as an alternative, The New Zealand Herald reported. But yesterday Perpetual Trust appointed Barry Jordan and David Vance of Deloitte as receivers. The St Laurence board this morning issued a statement saying it was "disappointed" that Perpetual Trust had appointed a receiver.

Property investment company St Laurence has been placed in receivership by its trustee a day after the company put forward an alternative debt for "equity" swap, The National Business Review reported. Perpetual Trust has appointed Barry Jordan and David Vance of Deloitte as receivers of St Laurence, which owes 9,000 investors $245 million. The move to receivership comes after St Laurence indicated yesterday it was insolvent and could no longer meet its scheduled moratorium payments to investors.

A leading Australian fruit exporter has collapsed with debts in excess of A$10m (US$9.25m). Mildura-based JAK Fruit Pty Ltd, run by managing director Jason Kotz, went into voluntary administration on Tuesday 27 April, the Sunraysia Daily reported. The company's primary interests were exporting citrus and table grapes, and it also exported avocados. Administrator Wayne Benton from Melbourne-based insolvency company BRI Ferrier said Mr Kotz had called his firm to ask them to take control of the company, with JAK Fruit owing growers A$4.1m and its banks around A$6m.

Dubai International Capital Wednesday sent a letter to senior lenders of German aluminum company Almatis, urging them to vote against a restructuring plan from distressed-debt investor Oaktree Capital, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The letter comes on the eve of Almatis' management filing to place the company in U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings as part of Oaktree's restructuring plan to more than halve Almatis' $1 billion debt to around $422 million.

The board of finance company St Laurence Limited have told its investors that either they vote to swap their debt for shares, or the company will go into receivership, nzherald.co.nz reported. Some 9,000 investors owed NZ$250 million in frozen funds agreed to give the company until 2013 to repay 70 per cent of its debentures. A meeting has now been called where these same investors will be asked to exchange their debenture stock and capital notes for shares in St Laurence holdings - the company set up to acquire the finance company's assets.

Creditors of Daewoo Motor Sales Corp. Tuesday stepped in to keep the vehicle sales and real estate development company afloat reversing an earlier decision to let it go bankrupt after failing to pay back maturing debts, but the decision appears to be a stopgap measure, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Tuesday morning creditors paid a combined KRW26.8 billion ($24 million) that was due on Friday and Monday, giving Daewoo Motor Sales a lifeline, main creditor Korea Development Bank said. "But we cannot guarantee payment of additional debts that mature from May.

Struggling Japan Airlines is to cut 45 more international and domestic routes this financial year as it accelerates its plan to return to profitability, it said Wednesday. The airline, being restructured with the help of a state-backed turnaround fund after filing for bankruptcy in January, will slash international and domestic capacity by 40 percent and 30 percent respectively, compared to fiscal 2008, Agence France-Presse reported.

China's real estate rush, once confined to a handful of leading cities, has spilled into the hinterlands with a ferocity reminiscent of American expansion into exurbs like the Inland Empire, the Los Angeles Times reported. "The situation in Hefei is a symbol of the craziness in China's real estate market," said Cao Jianhai, a professor of economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank. "Prices in second- and third-tier cities are increasing more dramatically than in the first tier.

Debt-ridden Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) could miss its June-end deadline for submitting a rehabilitation plan by as much as two months as it deals with local governments opposed to flight cuts, the Nikkei said. The struggling airline's main lenders have said they will not recommence lending unless the company drastically revamps unprofitable flight operations in the restructuring plans to be drawn up by the end of June.

Creditors of Daewoo Motor Sales Corp. have decided to let the vehicle sales and real estate development company go bankrupt, the main creditor, Korea Development Bank, said Monday. "The debt-rescheduling program for Daewoo Motor Sales may run aground due to the creditors' bankruptcy decision," a KDB official told Dow Jones. The company may be placed under a court receivership, said the official, who asked not to be identified. Daewoo Motor Sales said if it comes under the court protection, it is "the worst-case scenario" they can imagine.