Asia Pacific

The Australian company behind denim fashion label ksubi has restructured the business after a period of voluntary administration, CBC News’ Trading Room reported. ksubi Pty Ltd said on Friday the company was now controlled by a consortium of industry-experienced management, including investor Harry Hodge, co-founders Dan Single and George Gorrow, and shareholders of Bleach Pty Ltd. "In January 2010 ksubi entered into voluntary administration through Grant Thornton in an effort to restructure and consolidate the denim fashion label's business," ksubi said in a statement on Friday.

A senior Chinese central bank official criticized the handling of the Greek debt crisis, highlighting global concern about the situation in Europe, The Wall Street Journal reported. Speaking at a conference in Hong Kong, Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, also said China "should and could" import more goods to keep its trade surplus small. And he noted that the central bank's efforts to tighten monetary policy were having their intended effect, even without China having to raise interest rates.

Debt-ridden Japan Airlines Corp said it will suspend its scheduled freighter flight services by the end of October and would instead use the cargo belly space of passenger flights, Reuters reported. The airline's passenger flights provide cargo capacity of about three times the volume available on its scheduled freighter flights, the company said in a press release posted on its website.

A blitz of caveats put on Crafar North Island dairy farm titles by the company acting as the buying agent for a Chinese group is being removed by the Crafar receiver, The Dominion Post reported. A search of property titles for many of the farms involved in the Crafar receivership shows caveats registered by UBNZ Funds Management, the New Zealand company partly owned by Chinese company Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings, which is in negotiations to buy more than 20 farms in the receivership.

The Australian arm of recruitment advertising firm TMP Worldwide was placed into voluntary administration on Wednesday after falling victim to the global financial crisis, industry publication Recruiter reported. According to a report in The Australian newspaper, around 200 jobs are at risk at six locations around the country.

A senior Chinese trade official warned that any further appreciation of the Chinese currency risked driving exporters out of business, underscoring the domestic political pressures on Beijing amid growing international calls for China to let the yuan rise, The Wall Street Journal reported. Vice Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, in an exclusive interview Thursday ahead of a visit to the U.S., said that the profit margin on many Chinese export goods was less than 2%.

UAE banks are likely to keep a tight lid on lending in coming years, even if the sector manages to avoid an immediate hit from the Dubai World debt restructuring, analysts say. The state-owned conglomerate, which is grappling with $26 billion in debt, is in the final stages of preparing a debt restructuring plan to put to its 97 creditors. Analysts have voiced concerns that domestic lending would dry up if banks are forced to take big losses on Dubai World-related debt.

STX Group, one of the nation's leading shipbuilders, has joined the competition to take over Daehan Shipbuilding, The Korea Times reported. The company said Wednesday it had submitted a bid to buy the cash-strapped firm the previous day, the closing day for the tender. Daehan Shipbuilding, now under a debt rescheduling program, has a 140,000 square-meter dock in Haenam, South Jeolla Province.

Taranaki-based Organic Dairy Limited, owned by New Zealand Organic Dairy Farmers Co-operative, has gone into receivership owing an estimated $15 million and costing about 30 jobs, The New Zealand Herald reported. Receivers were appointed on Friday and the Okato factory stopped operating on Saturday, the Taranaki Daily News reported. The directors asked their major creditor, the Bank of New Zealand, to appoint receivers.

A string of villages on the outskirts of Beijing has become the unlikely focus of a national discussion about China's stubbornly tough job market for young people, as officials meet in the capital for the annual session of China's legislature, The Wall Street Journal reported. Government statistics show 87% of college graduates found work last year. But many graduates doubt those figures, and they say that jobs that are available often pay a barely livable wage.