Asia Pacific

The Russian factory known as Avtovaz is one of the least efficient automobile factories anywhere in the world--each worker produces, on average, eight cars a year, compared with 36 cars a year at General Motors’ assembly line in Bowling Green, Ky., for example. Yet the government is giving Avtovaz billions of dollars in aid, no strings attached, The New York Times reported. “The key issue is too much government protection,” Yegor T. Gaidar, a former prime minister, said.

Invista Real Estate, the UK's largest listed property fund manager, is poised to buy the Asian property business of Babcock & Brown, the Australian investment house that was placed into voluntary administration last month, the Financial Times reported. Invista, which is majority owned by HBOS, is to acquire Babcock & Brown's fund management platform in the region, including offices in Hong Kong and Singapore and more than 20 staff.

Bob Bangerter has been adjudicated bankrupt by a New Zealand court for the second time. Sir Robert Jones' company, Robt Jones Holding, had applied to bankrupt the Blue Chip co-founder because the company was owed $395,000 of unpaid rent for an Auckland office block where Blue Chip operated from. The 72-year-old Mr Bangerter had signed personal guarantees for the lease on the premise. Mr Bangerter was not represented in the High Court at Auckland today--his partner Maree Aitkenhead said he could not appear in court due to ill health.

Chinese restaurant Canton Wok in Joo Chiat has closed and its chef-owner Ang Song Kang, popularly known as Chef Kang, has had to file for bankruptcy after a failed business venture in China, The Straits Times reported. The 44-year-old chef tells Life! he invested in a Guangzhou motor and machine oil plant in 2005 with two Chinese nationals. He had known one of them for about three years. He invested $200,000 of his savings in the business and got a 25 per cent stake in it.

Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. said it will defend itself in court against claims it misled the market in 2004 over agreements with three Chinese government-backed entities, The Wall Street Journal reported. The long-awaited court case, brought against Fortescue by the Australian corporate watchdog, begins next week and is expected to last about five weeks.

There are many small tragedies within a global disaster like this, the Business Spectator reported, and one of them is Ventracor--for years one of Australia’s leading biotech prospects. Two weeks ago, Ventracor went into voluntary administration and is now, amazingly, facing complete closure. It has no debt and a technology that works: 400 people are walking around in the United States with its artificial heart whirring in their chests.

China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co. is offering US$1.21 billion for most of the assets of OZ Minerals Ltd. in a deal designed to win Australian government approval, prompting the debt-laden miner's lenders to grant it an extension on its outstanding loans, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Delphi Corp. will sell its brakes-and-suspension business to BeijingWest Industries Co. as part of the auto supplier's ongoing turnaround plan, Dow Jones reported. Delphi, which has been in bankruptcy protection since October 2005, is General Motors Corp.'s largest supplier and has been slammed by the recession and the steep drop in demand for new vehicles. Delphi agreed earlier this month to sell its global steering business to GM as a critical move in both companies' restructuring.

HMP Constructions, one of Queensland’s largest privately-held companies, has entered voluntary administration with the loss of an estimated 500 jobs and debts of around $150 million, the Queensland Business Review reported. It is reported the company was hit by BHP Billiton's decision to axe contracting from its Goonyella mine in Central Queensland, where some 350 staff were employed.

Japan's economy, the second-largest in the world, is shrinking at the fastest pace in more than 30 years, roughly twice as fast as the U.S. economy, The Washington Post reported. Exports and imports declined in February at a record rate, with monthly sales to the United States down nearly 60 percent compared with last year. Tokyo is giving itself public-works medicine for these global trade ills, deploying legions of men and women with flags and hard hats to repave streets, repaint crosswalks and fix broken clocks in city parks.