Asia Pacific

Over 100 companies globally have defaulted on their debt this year, affecting $302 billion worth of securities, but that figure could rise as nearly 900 issuers are poised for credit downgrades, Standard & Poor's said on Monday. Of the 108 defaults this year, 86 are from the United States, seven from Europe, five each from Asia and Canada, three from Latin America, and two from Russia. The figure contrasts with 22 defaults in 2007 and 30 in 2006.

Fifty-five childcare centres will close and 241 are on taxpayer life-support after the Rudd government gave ABC Learning $34 million yesterday to guarantee care for 20,000 children until the end of March, The Australian reported. The receiver for ABC Learning says 55 of its 720 childcare centres across Australia will close, and has chosen the 720 most profitable centres to sell to recoup $1.6 billion owed to banks by the failed childcare chain. But 241 unviable centres will be packaged into a subsidiary company and effectively handed over to the government to manage.

Kazakhstan sought to reassure investors on Wednesday that none of its banks would default on foreign debt although some bilateral loans may be restructured, the Guardian reported. Central bank Governor Anvar Saidenov said he was confident none of the local banks would default on its obligations. Kazakhstan has been hit badly by the global financial crisis and has announced a $21 billion aid package--roughly equivalent to 20 percent of gross domestic product--to help its oil-fuelled economy.

Taiyo Kogyo Co., a Japanese plastic product wholesaler, filed for bankruptcy protection today with the Tokyo District Court after accumulating 14.8 billion yen ($157 million) of liabilities, Bloomberg reported today. The company made the announcement today in a filing to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The stock will be delisted from the Jasdaq exchange on Dec. 9. Read more.

The top automakers in Asia would not welcome the collapse of one or even all of their three big Detroit rivals, though those who follow the industry expect the likes of Toyota, Honda and Hyundai to gain market share in the long term, the International Herald Tribune reported. The immediate carnage from a bankruptcy of General Motors, Ford Motor or Chrysler would spread throughout an industry that is bleeding cash in a global slowdown, auto executives and analysts say.

Central banks world-wide delivered sweeping interest rate cuts Thursday, even as the continuing turmoil in credit markets means cuts in rates are losing their power to curtail an accelerating global slowdown, The Wall Street Journal reported. Major European central banks, including the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and Sweden's Riksbank joined the central banks of New Zealand and Indonesia in making deep rate cuts. The goal: to stave off deep and painful slowdowns in the wake of financial market turmoil that has squeezed lending globally.

Ecuador’s government is considering various ways of repudiating its debt and will ask for loans from friendly governments like Iran should it lose access to credit markets, the country’s finance minister Maria Elsa Viteri said. Ecuador has threatened to default on $3.9 billion in bonds because it says a government-commissioned audit found evidence of criminal violations in connection with its issuance, Bloomberg reported. The government skipped a $30.6 million bond payment on Nov. 15, invoking a 30-day grace period.

An investor group is going to court to try to delay Tuesday's vote on a restructuring proposal for failed New Zealand finance company Hanover, The National Business Review reported today. The group has also asked the Minister of Commerce to put Hanover into statutory management. The group expects a hearing to be held at the High Court in Auckland on Monday. Hanover Finance is aiming to repay nearly 16,400 secured deposit investors their principal of more than $550 million within five years, under the debt restructure proposal.

In its latest effort to prevent Japan's economy from sinking further into recession, the Bank of Japan expanded its lending programs to ensure sufficient funds are available for companies ahead of the key year-end season, The Wall Street Journal reported today. The steps, announced after an unscheduled meeting of the BOJ's seven-member policy board, came as Japanese banks and companies are beginning to find it harder and more expensive to raise money in the financial markets.

U.K. fund manager New Star Asset Management Group's shares plummeted 43% Monday after the company disclosed that it is holding talks with its bank lenders, The Wall Street Journal reported today. The discussions likely revolve around trying to organize a debt-for-equity swap to help stabilize the highly leveraged firm, a person familiar with the matter said. The company sought to have trading of its shares temporarily suspended Monday as it delivered the potentially gloomy news, but U.K. regulators denied the request.