Suntech Power, a Chinese manufacturer that became the world’s largest producer of solar panels by 2011 only to be battered by plummeting prices, announced on Wednesday evening that its main operating subsidiary had been pushed into bankruptcy by eight Chinese banks, the International Herald Tribune reported. Suntech was the Icarus of the solar panel industry, with production that soared year after year on heavy investment, as Western investors bought up its New York-traded shares and its international debt issues.

Cyprus’s finance minister arrived in Moscow on Tuesday night to try to wrest vital economic assistance from the Kremlin as his country’s parliament rejected a €10bn EU-led bailout that requires €5.8bn to be seized from Cypriot bank accounts, the Financial Times reported. The 11th-hour attempt to tap funds from Russia as an alternative to the deposit levy stunned leaders in Brussels, who said they were taken aback by the resistance of Cypriot lawmakers to shifting the tax’s burden exclusively on to deposits over €100,000 – many of which are held by wealthy Russians.

Voluntary administrators have been called in by the Australian fund manager in charge of a giant mortgage fund frozen since 2009 with the savings of many New Zealand investors trapped in it, Stuff.co.nz reported. The directors of LM Investment Management appointed John Park and Ginette Muller of FTI Consulting as voluntary administrators, saying the move was forced on it as a result of a smear campaign against it. LM was set up by Kiwi ex-pat businessman Peter Drake but after growing rapidly it hit trouble following the Global Financial Crisis as many of its property loans defaulted.

Cyprus on Monday put off for another day a debate on a bank-deposit levy in the Parliament—a precondition to receiving a €10 billion ($13.07 billion) bailout—and said its banks would remain closed until Thursday, as the government sought more time to shore up support for the tax and raced to avert a collapse of its banking sector, The Wall Street Journal reported. Cyprus Parliament speaker Yiannakis Omirou said Monday that the debate and vote would be pushed back to Tuesday—now two days behind schedule—amid fears of a meltdown in the island's financial system.

Suntech, one of the world's biggest solar panel manufacturers, said Monday it has defaulted on a $541 million bond payment in the latest sign of the financial squeeze on the struggling global solar industry, the Associated Press reported. Suntech Power Holdings Ltd.'s announcement was a severe setback for a company lauded by China's Communist government as a leader of efforts to make the country a center of the renewable energy industry.

Lotte Tour Co., a South Korean tour operator, said Monday it has filed for court receivership as part of its efforts to get back on its feet following the default of a company in which Lotte has a stake, the Yonhap News Agency reported. Lotte Tour said in a regulatory filing that the Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to decide whether to approve its request, though it did not give any specific time frame. Court officials were not immediately reached for comment.

China is poised to launch its most serious economic reform drive since the 1990s after a series of top appointments at the weekend put the architects of Zhu Rongji's clash with state owned enterprises in charge of key economic agencies. Vice Premier Ma Kai, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei and central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan were all Zhu lieutenants at the State Commission for Restructuring the Economy, which drew up the blueprint to sever the army's ties with business and make millions jobless as state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were reformed.

Europe’s surprising decision early Saturday to force bank depositors in Cyprus to share in the cost of the latest euro zone bailout set off increasing outrage and turmoil in Cyprus on Sunday and fueled fears that the trouble will spread to countries like Spain and Italy, the International Herald Tribune reported. Facing eroding support, the new president, Nicos Anastasiades, asked Parliament to postpone until Monday an emergency vote on a measure to approve the bailout terms, amid doubt that it would pass.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. said it didn't make a required payment on $541 million of bonds that matured Friday. It wasn't clear what the Chinese solar-panel company's plans were for repaying investors, The Wall Street Journal reported. A Suntech spokesman declined to comment. Suntech said last Monday that it had reached a "forbearance agreement" with about 60% of its foreign bondholders, who agreed to push back the date for repayment to May 15, allowing more time to negotiate a new repayment deal.

Indonesia's leading oil and gas shipper PT Berlian Laju Tanker reached a deal with creditors to restructure its $1.9 billion debt, averting what could have been one of the country's biggest bankruptcies in years, Reuters reported. Once the world's third-largest chemical shipper, the group secured support for its restructuring plan on Thursday, just four days before a court-mandated deadline. "A deal has been reached with 100 percent of secured creditors voting for it," William Shia, head of Asian investments at Berlian Laju creditor Gramercy, told Reuters shortly after the vote.