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.

Nathan Tinkler became Australia's youngest billionaire in record time thanks to a series of aggressive bets on the country's coal mining sector, Reuters reported. But the man who started his career as a pit electrician acknowledged on Thursday he may have attempted one risky deal too many, leaving him with an undiversified portfolio that was heavily exposed to plummeting coal prices. "I got left holding the can," Tinkler told an Australian court during a grilling about his failure to pay junior coal explorer Blackwood Corp Ltd A$28.4 million ($29.1 million) for an agreed share placement deal.

Embattled Australian coal tycoon Nathan Tinkler appeared in a Sydney court on Thursday to face a public grilling for the first time over the state of his finances, as creditors seek to recover millions of dollars in unpaid debts, Reuters reported. Tinkler, 37, flew in from his home in Singapore having been threatened with arrest if he failed to present himself in the New South Wales Supreme Court. He lost a last-minute bid to avoid questioning over a A$28.4 million ($29.1 million) debt to junior coal explorer Blackwood Corp Ltd.

There is growing expectation that losses may be imposed on senior bank bondholders as part of the imminent Cypriot bailout, despite a similar option being withheld from Ireland as part of the €64 billion Irish rescue package. Forcing bank bondholders to take a write-down on their debt is under active consideration by euro zone officials, according to a well-placed euro zone source. Depositors in Cypriot banks may also suffer writedowns, the Irish Times reported.

Most sites being worked on by Mainzeal prior to its collapse last month have now been handed back to their clients, according to receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers, The New Zealand Herald reported. Hope remains that the collapsed company's subcontractors and staff will now be re-hired to work on the various projects. Mainzeal Property and Construction, which was New Zealand's third largest construction firm, went into receivership on Waitangi Day leaving workers and subcontractors locked out of about 40 worksites.

Germany is growing wary of saddling bank-account holders with losses as part of a rescue for Cyprus and no longer insists on a financial contribution from the International Monetary Fund, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said, Bloomberg reported. Michael Meister, deputy parliamentary floor leader of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, floated concessions that would hasten the wrap-up of nine months of aid talks and lessen the risk that a financial accident in Cyprus, which makes up barely 0.2 percent of the euro-zone economy, could revive European market turbulence.

An increase in Cyprus's corporate tax rate is under consideration as part of negotiations over a proposed official bailout for the island, according to three people with knowledge of the talks, The Wall Street Journal reported. Cyprus's troika of would-be official creditors—the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund—is pressing Nicosia to raise its corporate tax by up to three percentage points from 10% now, the officials said.

President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus will ask Athens to hand over €2bn from its own bank recapitalisation package to rescue Cypriot banks with operations in Greece, say officials in Nicosia, the Financial Times reported. The unusual request comes as Cypriot officials desperately try to avert a so-called haircut of bank deposits held on the island as part of a proposed €17bn bailout being negotiated with the EU and International Monetary Fund.

International lenders would like Cyprus to raise its corporate tax and introduce a levy on capital gains and a financial transaction tax to ensure it can repay a euro zone bailout it asked for last year, euro zone officials said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Cyprus needs up to 17 billion euros (14.8 billion pounds) - almost as much as its annual gross domestic product - in emergency loans, mostly to recapitalise its oversized banking sector, hit by a Greek debt restructuring, but also to service debt and government expenses.

A troika of European and international auditors arrived in the Cypriot capital Wednesday, tasked with hammering out a tricky, multibillion euro bailout for the country, The Wall Street Journal reported. The delegation is expected to stay until Friday amid hopes that a final deal—which has been delayed for months—can be reached by the end of March, following last month's election of a new Cypriot president, conservative leader Nicos Anastasiades. The biggest hurdle remains the country's debt sustainability.