Asia Pacific

Investors in stricken finance company Dorchester Pacific will have to wait a little longer for details of management's restructuring plan, which the company yesterday said would see them get all their money back over a three-year period, the New Zealand Herald reported today. A day after St Laurence Finance and Investments, with whom Dorchester's fate is entwined, announced details of its own imminent restructuring proposal, Dorchester's management said their plan was "now well advanced".

Seoul shares slipped 2 percent on Tuesday as demand worries following a bankruptcy filing by a major U.S. electronics retailer sent tech exporters such as LG Electronics lower, Reuters reported yesterday. Banks also fell on jitters about funding difficulties and rising bad debt. The United States is South Korea's second-biggest export market. Appliance and mobile phone maker LG Electronics dropped 6.99 percent and LG Display, a maker of flat screens for TVs and computers, declined 6.46 percent. Hynix, which produces chips used in computers and consumer electronics, fell 8.52 percent.

Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran said Singapore's government won't bail out the casino-resort being built by Las Vegas Sands Corp. in the city-state's downtown, Bloomberg reported today. The success of Las Vegas Sands’ project is crucial for the city-state, which is counting on two casino-resorts to help double visitor arrivals and triple tourism spending by 2015. The Las Vegas casino operator said yesterday it will get a $525 million investment from the family of CEO Sheldon Adelson and plans to sell $1.62 billion more in shares to raise cash and avoid bankruptcy.

As the global slowdown weakens demand for China's exports, bankruptcies and joblessness are spreading throughout southern China, a main manufacturing zone, the Wall Street Journal reported today. China's customs agency recently reported that half of China's toy exporters that it tracks--some 3,600 companies--were driven out of the market in the first seven months of this year. A majority of those were in and around Dongguan, often called the toy-making capital of the world. Higher prices for energy and raw materials have driven up costs.

Las Vegas Sands, owned by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, said it remained "committed" to its $4 billion Singapore casino project and that the city-state approved its proposal for as many as 1,000 gaming tables, the International Herald Tribune reported yesterday. The company met Singapore government officials last week to discuss completing the project, the Sands said Friday. Las Vegas Sands, which may be short of cash for $16 billion of projects in Asia, has no problems with its borrowings in Singapore, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and DBS Group, said last week. The Sands told the U.S.

China unveiled an economic stimulus program it billed as totaling $586 billion, aiming to bolster domestic demand and help avert a global recession, the Wall Street Journal Asia reported today. Though the two-year package appeared to include some previously announced measures, its size was clearly designed to revive the fading confidence of Chinese businesses and consumers, and impress foreign governments.

National Australia Bank Ltd. said it has appointed a receiver to Allco Finance Group Ltd. unit Rubicon Holdings Australia, which manages three listed trusts, following Allco's collapse last week, the Wall Street Journal Asia reported today. NAB said it has appointed accounting and services firm Deloitte to oversee Rubicon Holdings, and that it would take a provision for its 20 million Australian dollar (US$13.3 million) exposure to the Allco unit.

Groups related to collapsed Allco Finance Group warned today the failure of Allco may have triggered defaults on debt facilities, The Australian reported today. Real estate managers Rubicon Japan Trust, Rubicon America Trust and Rubicon Europe Trust Group said they were in talks with various lenders about the implications of Allco Finance's situation. All three entities were suspended from trade. Rubicon America Trust said that defaults on two debt facilities may have been triggered by Allco Finance's collapse, although it was not clear in the documentation for the loans.

US gaming firm Las Vegas Sands intends to finish a casino project it is building in Singapore and there are no indications it will default on loans, lender DBS Group said Friday. DBS is one of 40 banks that formed a syndicate to fund the Marina Bay Sands casino development, which is estimated to cost more than four billion US dollars, Agence France-Presse reported today. DBS’s comments followed a filing by Las Vegas Sands on Thursday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in which it sounded out a warning about its financial situation.

The International Monetary Fund has “record levels of liquidity” to combat the global economic crisis and debate over new ways of supplementing its coffers was not “today’s problem”, according to John Lipsky, IMF first deputy director. With the Fund facing unprecedented calls on its resources, some policymakers have raised concerns about its continued capacity to react to demands such as its $16.5 billion loan to Ukraine and $2 billion loan to Iceland, the Financial Times reported yesterday.