Daewoo Electronics Corp. is finally getting a new owner – more than a decade after the collapse of its mother conglomerate that was the most storied business failure in the country’s history, The Wall Street Journal Korea Real Time blog reported. Dongbu Group, considered a mid-sized chaebol because it operates in seven businesses and has about 40,000 employees, picked up a 51% stake in Daewoo Electronics for 276 billion won, or about $256 million. It beat out another Korean firm, Samla Midas Group, and Sweden’s Electrolux AB for the stake.

Cyprus's hopes of agreeing a eurozone bailout were thrown into fresh confusion on Wednesday as German politicians from across the spectrum warned that the aid package could be vetoed by the Bundestag, The Guardian reported. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is taking a hard line on Cyprus, saying the country must agree to wideranging economic reforms and privatisations before she would support a bailout. Negotiations between the Cyprus government and international lenders have stalled, with the Communist president, Dimitris Christofias, refusing to accept asset sales.

China’s bank loans as a share of funding in the economy may have fallen to a record low, highlighting the growth of alternative financing channels that have prompted warnings of rising credit risks. New yuan loans probably dropped 14 percent last month from a year earlier, according to the median projection in a Bloomberg News survey of 37 analysts ahead of data due by Jan. 15. That would give bank lending a 55 percent share of aggregate financing for 2012, based on UBS AG estimates, the least in figures dating to 2002.

Singapore Airlines has asked its captains to volunteer for unpaid leave amid a global economic slowdown that has dented long-haul travel demand, the airline says. The move came nearly a year after the company - considered a bellwether for the full-service airline industry - made a similar offer to its first officers, The New Zealand Herald reported. The airline has also frozen its intake of cadet pilots as part of a slew of cost-cutting measures.

Global regulators gave banks four more years and greater flexibility on Sunday to build up cash buffers so they can use some of their reserves to help struggling economies grow. The pull-back from a draconian earlier draft of new global bank liquidity rule to help prevent another financial crisis went further than banks had expected by allowing them a broader range of eligible assets.

India’s record current-account deficit threatens to weigh on the rupee and curb the magnitude of interest-rate cuts forecast to begin this month in support of government policies seeking faster growth, Bloomberg News reported today. The shortfall swelled to $22.31 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, the widest in Reserve Bank of India data beginning 1949. The rupee is down 6.1 percent against the dollar in the past three months, fanning price gains that will limit Governor Duvvuri Subbarao to a 25 basis-point rate cut on Jan.

China's average home prices rose in December, ending eight straight months of year-on-year declines, signaling the country's property market is recovering from its lengthy slump, the Wall Street Journal reported today. A survey of property developers and real estate companies showed the average price of housing in 100 Chinese cities rose by a modest 0.03 percent in December from a year earlier, data provider China Real Estate Index System said Friday.

China has issued a fresh warning to its local governments to control risk and stop using unauthorized fundraising methods to pay for the building of infrastructure and other projects, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The finance ministry, in a statement jointly issued with other government agencies and published on its website Monday, said there has been an increase of unauthorized funds by local governments and reiterated existing restrictions on the use of leasing, trust, and build-and-transfer arrangements to pay for public works.

Singapore’s economy grew in the past three months of 2012, avoiding an expected recession as services put in a strong showing and gross domestic product figures for the first three quarters of the year were revised downwards, Reuters reported today. Singapore, whose trade is equal to about three times its G.D.P., has been badly hit by the weakness in Western economies, which has crimped demand for many of its exports. The city-state’s electronic manufacturers have also failed to tap surging demand for smartphones, unlike rivals in South Korea and Taiwan.

Japan's new finance minister upped the ante in the country's war of words against the strong yen, lashing out at the U.S. and Europe for letting their currencies weaken dramatically and calling on the U.S. to strengthen the dollar, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The tirade from Taro Aso, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's point person on currency strategy, underscores the increasingly pugnacious stance of the fledgling Abe government against what it sees as a global trend of currency devaluations.