Asia Pacific

The trend by banks in Australia to wind up small businesses that have fallen behind is likely to take off in New Zealand, a business turnaround specialist says, BusinessDay.co.nz reported. Trevor Thornton, of accounting firm Grant Thornton New Zealand, said Australian banks were starting to stop supporting small businesses "nursed for a couple of years", but now late with their repayments. "It would seem only a matter of time before banks on this side of the Tasman start to lose patience with companies that have not been able to effectively rehabilitate themselves," Mr Thornton said.

Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission said Friday it extended the receivership of Kuo Hua Life Insurance Co. by another nine months to allow investors to bid for the firm, Taiwan's first life insurance company to be taken into receivership by the government for more than 40 years, Nasdaq.com reported on a Dow Jones story. The receivership period was to end May 3. The Financial Supervisory Commission took over Kuo Hua Life Aug. 4, 2009, because it had more debt than assets, and handed it over to the Taiwan Insurance Guarantee Fund, which is funded by a tax from industry premiums.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy estate sued three arms of Japanese investment bank Nomura Holdings Inc. in an attempt to wipe out more than $1 billion of claims related to derivatives contracts, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Lehman filed legal complaints Friday against Nomura International PLC in London, Nomura Global Financial Products in New York and Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. in Tokyo, seeking to invalidate large claims the companies made against the investment bank after it had filed for bankruptcy. In each complaint, filed in the U.S.

The decision to file for bankruptcy was not his, the president of language-school chain Geos Corp., Tsuneo Kusunoki, implied in an unusual statement released Thursday, the Japan Times reported. A Geos lawyer explained that because "three directors could not reach agreement" on the bankruptcy filing, the action was not taken by the board of directors but rather by some executives. The lawyer stressed that the process is legal.

Receivers appointed to troubled Launceston timber company Forest Enterprises Australia are yet to decide on the need for more redundancies, The Examiner reported. After concerns from staff that former chief executive Andrew White had received a lucrative redundancy payout, a spokeswoman for receiver manager Tim Norman, of Deloitte, yesterday denied that was the case.

Unionized workers at Kumho Tire Co. have accepted the company's restructuring measures, including a reduction in wages and bonuses, in the second round of a vote held Wednesday, the company said Thursday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Under the agreement, Kumho Tire workers will have to accept a 10% basic salary cut for 2010 and an additional 5% cut before the company's exit from a debt-rescheduling program, which may take two to three years. The company withdrew its original plan to cut about 1,200 workers in return for union concessions on wages.

Sydney company Chippendale Printing has entered voluntary administration, just over a week after it claimed to be merging with Beaver Press, now also in administration, MediaBizNet.com reported. Peter Allen, Quentin Olde and Matt Adams of Taylor Woodings have been appointed as administrators for the company, which entered voluntary administration this week. Chippendale managing director Fred Van Steel told ProPrint on Thursday 8 April the company was not in any financial trouble, despite persistent rumours claiming it was struggling.

Swedish network equipment vendor L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. has purchased Nortel Networks Corp.'s controlling stake in a South Korean joint venture for $242 million in cash, a move that should help boost its footprint in the Asian country, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Ericsson said Wednesday that it has bought Nortel's 50% plus one share stake in its joint venture with LG Electronics Inc., LG-Nortel. LG-Nortel will be renamed LG-Ericsson and will continue to have its headquarters in Seoul.

National carrier Philippine Airlines, which has bled more than P15 billion ($337.6 million) in the past two fiscal years, is spinning-off its three non-core units as a last resort to avoid bankruptcy, Philstar.com reported. PAL will spin off the following units: in-flight catering services; airport services, including ground handling, cargo handling and ramp handling; and call center reservations by end of May. The move will enable PAL to save as much as P1 billion ($22.5 million) a year, PAL President and COO Jaime Bautista said in a press briefing today.

Integral Energy and the Australian Energy Market Operator could face legal action over their role in the collapse of the renewable energy company Jackgreen, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Jackgreen, which was Australia's largest specialist renewable retailer, went into voluntary administration in December after it failed to pay a $500,000 bill to the NSW government-owned Integral Energy. At the time, the company claimed it was squeezed out of business by its bigger rival, which acquired most of its customers soon after the corporate paramedics were appointed.