Asia Pacific

Three Japanese auto makers slashed their earnings and production plans Friday on the back of prolonged weakness in demand, with Honda Motor Co. implementing another cutback in domestic output for this fiscal year, The Wall Street Journal reported. Due to the continued slump in auto sales, Honda said that it will reduce production in Japan for the current fiscal year through March by 56,000 vehicles. The latest cutback follows a domestic output reduction by a combined 86,000 vehicles that it already announced for the second half through March.

Private equity investors and childcare rivals are looking at making bids for the New Zealand childcare sites of ABC Learning Centres. Offers for its New Zealand assets may land as early as next week from private equity firms and child care operators, the Australian Financial Review reported today.

Japan’s corporate bankruptcies rose the most in eight years in 2008 as a deepening recession weakened sales and made it harder for businesses to get funds, Bloomberg reported. Bankruptcies climbed 11 percent from a year earlier to 15,646 cases last year, the fastest pace since 2000, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. said in Tokyo today. A total of 33 publicly traded companies went out of business in 2008, the most in the postwar period, the report said. Japanese companies have struggled to find investors willing to purchase their debt since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September.

Ailing South Korean automaker Ssangyong Motor, which is seeking court receivership to avoid bankruptcy, announced it has suspended production because of a lack of parts, Agence France-Presse reported. Operations at the company's only plant at Pyeongtak, 70 kilometres (43 miles) south of Seoul, will stop indefinitely, the Chinese-owned firm said. A Ssangyong spokeswoman told AFP the supply of auto parts would likely resume only after a local court gives a final ruling on the firm's application for protection from creditors.

Car sales growth in China, the world's second-largest auto market, slowed to a single-digit rate last year for the first time in at least 10 years as consumer confidence waned with a slowing economy, spurring government steps to bolster demand, The Korea Herald reported. Analysts said the outlook for this year remained bleak, although tax incentives and other measures may help to keep the market from shrinking, while some automakers such as the Japanese have been able to cushion the blow by introducing new models.

Satyam Computer Services Ltd. said it can keep operating in the wake of revelations its former chairman faked results--but it is strapped for cash and its investigation into the true state of its finances is being hampered by the absence of the chief financial officer, who has tendered his resignation. The chairman of the Securities & Exchange Board of India said officials from the markets regulator started arriving at Satyam Thursday to begin their probe, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Another company headed by Christchurch property developer Dave Henderson is in receivership, The Press reported. Receivers were appointed to Elgin Investments Ltd on December 5, Companies Office records show. The company owns the Sydenham Central Mall (formerly the Spotlight Plaza) in Colombo Street, the key tenant being a Spotlight store. Christchurch property management company Livingstones will continue to manage the mall. Shares in the company are owned by investors in Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington, Hong Kong and Australia. The mall has been on the market for at least a year.

China has bought more than $1 trillion in American debt, but as the global downturn has intensified, Beijing is starting to keep more of its money at home, a shift that could pose some challenges to the U.S. government in the near future but eventually may even produce salutary effects on the world economy, the International Herald Tribune reported. The declining Chinese appetite for U.S. debt, apparent in a series of hints from Chinese policy makers over the past two weeks, comes at an inopportune time.

According to a recent study conducted by Asian Banker Research, Malaysia is listed fourth in the Asia Pacific region's most creditor-friendly bankruptcy regimes where creditors can expect to recover more than 80 cents in the dollar of assets they are owed, the Malaysian national news agency reported. The findings of the study released today said Singapore and Japan were Asia Pacific region's most creditor-friendly bankruptcy regimes where creditors could expect to recover more than 90 cents in the dollar. Taiwan came third with a similar rate of recovery with Malaysia.

A failed business venture in China helped send Niagara Machine Products Corp. of St. Catharines into receivership, according to a representative of the company's Toronto receiver, Zeifman Partners Inc., The Standard reported. "They had a significant investment, a joint venture in China, and that went sideways," Allan Rutman said about the collaboration with Chinese steel producer Baosteel. Niagara Machine, which employs 210 workers, announced in a news release Monday that it is under receivership.