Credit Suisse Group AG will accept a debt restructuring plan that Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group put to its creditors, helping to resolve negotiations surrounding a default that occurred more than two years ago, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Swiss lender sent a letter to about 20 other creditors of the Hanoi-based company, telling them it plans to accept the proposal and outlining the rationale for them to do the same, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

China's banks and other lenders have extended hundreds of billions of dollars to Chinese companies over the past two years, helping them weather sluggish foreign demand in many industries as well as slowing growth at home, The Wall Street Journal reported. Analysts at Standard Chartered PLC estimate that Chinese corporate debt was equivalent to 128% of gross domestic product by the end of 2012, up from 101% at the end of 2009.

In a growing sign of companies facing difficulties in meeting their financial obligations, banks were approached for debt restructuring in a record 126 cases during 2012 for a collective amount of Rs 84,000 crore (over USD 15 billion), The Indian Express reported. During the last quarter ended December 31, 2012 itself, a total number of 25 cases were referred for Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) for an aggregate amount of over Rs 20,000 crore, shows the data available with the CDR cell of bankers.

Indonesia's commercial court has declared budget carrier Batavia Air bankrupt just months after AirAsia, Southeast Asia's top low-cost airline, aborted a deal to invest in it, officials said Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Agus Iskandar, presiding judge at the Jakarta Commercial Court, said a bankruptcy petition filed by U.S.-based International Lease Finance Corporation was approved on Wednesday after Batavia Air failed to pay a $4.7 million debt that was due Dec. 13. Flights abruptly stopped just after midnight, stranding hundreds of passengers across the country.

Applications for reverse mortgages, which are typically taken out by elderly or retired homeowners who borrow money in the form of monthly payments against the equity in their homes, are surging to the highest in six years. Loans backed by state- run financing firm Korea Housing Finance Corp. jumped 71 percent in 2012 as retirees like Kim sought a steady income in a nation wracked by personal debt, falling home values and a rapidly aging population, Bloomberg reported.

More than 450 workers are not returning to their jobs today, as transport and logistics company Wettenhalls collapsed on Friday afternoon, SmartCompany.au reported. The business has been operating for almost 90 years and has a turnover of approximately $120 million per annum and has 14 sites nationally. BDO administrators Luke Targett, Rachel Burdett-Baker and Dennis Turner have been appointed as voluntary administrators. Independently, Ferrier Hodgson partners Brendan Richards and George Georges were appointed receivers and managers of the Wettenhalls business on Friday, January 25.

Many congratulations to Stephen Fidler, who has managed to get some actual news in Davos: EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn went on the record telling him that Cyprus is going to have to restructure its debt — just two weeks after ruling such a thing out, Seeking Alpha reported. That might come as little surprise, given that Cypriot banks were loaded up to the gills with Greek debt, and Greek debt suffered a 70% haircut.

The Bank of Japan appears to have accomplished a tactical masterstroke in giving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe an ambitious inflation target and an "open ended" commitment to buying assets, without expending any of its policy firepower, Reuters reported in an analysis. At least that is financial markets' initial read. Japan's central bankers see it differently; a hard-fought compromise that allowed the Bank of Japan to fend off the most serious threat to its 15-year independence, but which left it obliged to carry out more radical policies in the future.

The 80 shareholders of Australian Sugar Cane Feeds are meeting today after the farming feed and mulch business collapsed, leaving them $13 million in the red, SmartCompany.au reported. ASCF is based on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and produces a feed product made from sugarcane called Cow Candy and a mulch product called Hydrocane. The business had 12 employees and customers across Asia and Australia.

China’s manufacturing is expanding at the fastest rate in two years, according to a private survey of companies, bolstering prospects that economic growth will accelerate for a second straight quarter. The preliminary reading of a Purchasing Managers’ Index was 51.9 in January, according to a statement from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics today. That compares with the 51.5 final reading for December and the 51.7 median estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.