Wellington property developer Terry Serepisos has had bankruptcy proceedings against him adjourned so he can organise the sell-down of over $230 million worth of property, The National Business Review reported. John Billington, Mr Serepisos' new lawyer, told the Wellington High Court today that his client wants to work with insolvency specialists to sell his property portfolio, which includes about 150 residential properties and six significant commercial properties, all in Wellington.

Troubled Wellington property developer Terry Serepisos has been given a bit more time to convince creditors he can orchestrate an orderly sale of his assets with a surplus of some $30 million, The New Zealand Herald reported. Associate Judge David Gendall granted an adjournment for bankruptcy proceedings against Serepisos in the High Court in Wellington today after receiving a proposal on Friday that will leave assets worth some $232.5 million in the hands of two experienced insolvency practitioners to sell them over the next few years.

China broadened the base of reserves it requires commercial lenders to deposit with the central bank to control liquidity and limit inflation, economists said, Bloomberg reported. Reserve requirements are being extended to customers’ margin deposits, a move that may drain 900 billion yuan ($140 billion) from the banking system over six months, Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Lu Ting said in an e-mailed note on Aug. 26. Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. cited similar information.

The Queensland Government says there was nothing it could do to prevent one of the biggest tourism developments at Airlie Beach, in the Whitsundays region of the state's north, from going into receivership, ABC News reported. Administrators took control of the $200 million Meridien Marinas Port of Airlie project earlier this week. The development includes 56 apartments, 15 beachfront land lots, marina berths and a retail and dining precinct.

China's big banks reported hefty profits in the first half of this year, but signs of strain are showing from their massive lending binges and as they struggle to meet tougher capital requirements, The Wall Street Journal reported. Profits of the nation's five biggest banks by assets, led by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., were buoyed in part by a greater focus on business that generates fee income, such as credit cards and wealth-management products.

Financial authorities have vowed to throw everything they have at the country’s consumer debt mountain, which now threatens to outstrip an entire year’s gross domestic product (GDP). But to the majority of observers, it appears the officials are doing nothing at all, if not actually making things worse, The Korea Times reported. It was two months ago when the Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced a fresh set of measures to tackle the increasing problem of personal indebtedness, aimed at assisting households in repaying loans and suppressing irresponsible lending by banks.

Korea’s increasingly toxic housing market is now threatening to wipe out the cream of the crop in its construction industry, a private think-tank claims. High on the endangered list are builders like Daewoo, Lotte, Ssangyong, Halla, Kolon and Keangnam, The Korea Times reported.

One of the few bright spots in real estate amid a three-year global slump, Australia now faces falling home prices and fears of overbuilding, The Wall Street Journal reported. A downturn in Australia's real estate market will add to concerns of a two-speed economy in the resource-rich nation. Mining profits are surging due to heavy demand from China and other fast-growing Asian countries, but consumer businesses and manufacturing have faltered under the weight of the swollen Australian dollar, which is trading near 30-year highs to the U.S. currency.

If our world has any place that acts like a financial early warning system, it’s South Korea. With high short-term debt levels and little to cushion it from destabilizing global events, Korea is often the first of the top 15 economies to zig, zag or hit an economic wall. At the moment, events on the ground suggest that Asia is fast running into trouble, Bloomberg reported. Korea was probably hit harder by Standard & Poor’s cut of the U.S.’s AAA credit rating than the U.S. Markets in Korea plunged, capital fled and credit-default swaps protecting public debt soared as U.S.

Plowing ahead with plans to return the company to the stock market by the end of the next fiscal year, the head of Japan Airlines Corp. said Monday its low-cost joint venture can learn from--and avoid--painful mistakes made by other well-established U.S. and European carriers in past attempts to tap into the budget travel market, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. But JAL President Masaru Onishi said the Japanese government needs to do its part too.