Asia Pacific

Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson said the opening of the company's $5.5 billion Singapore casino and resort has been delayed again, and now expects it to begin operations in April, The Associated Press reported. The Marina Bay Sands, one of two casinos being built in Singapore, was initially scheduled to open this month. Then Adelson said in July it would open by February. Heavy rains and the bankruptcy of some of the project's sub-contractors further pushed back the opening, Adelson said.

Capmark Financial Group Inc's Japanese loan servicing unit is being sold to Elliott Management for 3.4 billion yen ($38 million), a U.S. fund management firm, which outbid Japan's Orix and others, U.S. court documents show, Reuters reported. Elliott outbid to buy Capmark's Japanese loan servicing business called Premier Asset Management, according to the documents, by beating Sandringham Capital Partners, a UK-based fund management firm which had agreed to buy Premier in October.

It was a year of massive stimulus packages, rising unemployment and the bankruptcy of General Motors and other big names; but 2009 ended with America’s big banks beginning to repay their huge bail-outs and China leading an incipient world recovery. Read The Economist’s review of The world this year. Read more.

Chinese lenders are using a little-understood financial transaction to move loans off their balance sheets, a trend that raises questions about transparency in one of the world's biggest banking industries, according to analysts in China who have studied the deals, The Wall Street Journal reported. The transactions, which increased sharply last month, involve banks temporarily selling loans to Chinese trust companies, promising to repurchase the loans any time between a few weeks and a few years later. The trusts repackage the loans into financial instruments for clients.

The heat has been turned up on Capital+Merchant managing director Owen Tallentire and his colleagues, with the Official Assignee being appointed as liquidator of the company described by the Companies Office as the worst finance company they've seen, The New Zealand Herald reported.

Troubled Ssangyong Motor avoided bankruptcy after a court approved its self-rescue plan despite opposition from overseas creditors. The ruling enables the cash-strapped automaker to get additional financing from investors, and take a series of steps to eventually stand on its own feet. Its ongoing negotiations for a possible sale is also expected to gain momentum. A Ssangyong spokesman told The Korea Times that it would select a candidate to take over the company by January and complete the deal by September.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government is set to announce a new bankruptcy law "within months" aimed at providing legal protection for companies in financial strife, local newspaper Gulf News reported Wednesday. "The government is working on issuing a comprehensive bankruptcy/insolvency law that will protect businesses under financial stress and help them move forward," the report quoted Hamad Bu Amim, director general of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as saying. "There are certain provisions for insolvencies in our Companies Laws.

Abu Dhabi's decision to offer Dubai financial succour has bought time for the debt-laden emirate to restructure its troubled Dubai World conglomerate, but the former boom town still faces a severe test, the Financial Times reported in an analysis. Dubai World holds most of the emirate's credit pile, and despite the $10 billion (€6.8 billion, £6.1 billion) support extended yesterday by Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates capital, the conglomerate must still restructure its debts.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC's ABN Amro operations in China said it has uncovered potential irregularities within its small and medium-size enterprise banking business in response to a Wall Street Journal inquiry. The scale and nature of the potential problems at ABN Amro China still remain unclear. ABN Amro has one of the biggest foreign banking franchises in China, operating 18 retail banking outlets in the country. The ABN Amro China spokeswoman declined to give further details about the potential irregularities, citing the bank's ongoing investigation.

The International Banking Corp., a Bahrain-based provider of commercial loans, filed a Chapter 15 bankruptcy petition, seeking protection from U.S. creditors, The China Post reported. TIBC had assets of US$4 billion and liabilities of US$2.6 billion as of July 31, according to documents filed in Manhattan court Monday. TIBC is under administration proceedings in Bahrain, with Trowers & Hamlins Services Ltd. acting as administrator, and Zolfo Cooper hired for restructuring work.