Confusion reigns around the administration of a landmark Auckland wedding venue and restaurant, with the owner puzzled over what has happened to his business of 28 years, Stuff.co.nz reported. The case is one of nearly 100 voluntary administrations agreed since insolvency laws were changed to allow the new procedure four years ago. And the results so far have been mixed, with most companies which opt for voluntary administration eventually failing.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard expressed concern Thursday about the outlook for global growth, warning that Europe's sovereign-debt crisis is far from being resolved and the U.S. is only beginning to deal with its fiscal problems, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a wide-ranging interview Thursday, Ms. Gillard said the inability of Europe's leaders up to now to calm markets worried over the economic health of the euro zone was the world economy's biggest challenge. Confidence has also been dented by a "spectacular" political deadlock in the U.S.

South Canterbury Finance's receivers have taken over the case to bankrupt Phoenix soccer team owner and Wellington property developer Terry Serepisos, chasing a debt of about $18 million, The New Zealand Herald reported. In the High Court at Wellington today FM Custodians withdrew its application to bankrupt Mr Serepisos, saying they had settled their debts. Mr Serepisos had owed FM Custodians about $5m. The lawyer for South Canterbury Finance's receivers, Joshua Cameron, applied to replace FM Custodians as the judgement creditor, saying his client was owed "roughly $18m".

Bad loans at Chinese banks will rise to “shockingly high” levels, eroding profits and slowing growth in the world’s second-biggest economy, said Vontobel Asset Management Inc.’s Rajiv Jain, who runs some of this year’s best-performing mutual funds, Bloomberg reported. China’s local governments are struggling to repay their debt and “frothy” real-estate markets may leave banks exposed to falling prices, Jain said in an Aug. 16 phone interview.

China Petrochemical Corp.'s partner in its only oil production venture in Australia appointed administrators Monday, a move that underscores how some of China's earliest investments in the resource-rich country have struggled to meet expectations, The Wall Street Journal reported. AED Oil Ltd. raised US$561 million in 2008 when it sold 60% of its underperforming Puffin oil field in the Timor Sea to China Petrochemical Corp., also known as Sinopec.

Chinese state media and government officials have declared an initial victory in dealing with piles of local government debt, but analysts warn debt risks remain a big threat to the Chinese banking system and the world's second-largest economy, Reuters reported. In an attempt to quell investor jitters, China's state auditor in June laid the groundwork for a debt clean-up by releasing a review that said local governments had borrowed 10.7 trillion yuan ($1.67 trillion) by the end of 2010.

South Canterbury Finance receivers have sold another chunk of the failed lender’s business but the return to the taxpayer has been kept confidential, The National Business Review reported. Japanese investment bank Nomura has acquired South Canterbury’s consumer, business and rural loan portfolios – the last of the so-called “good bank” of assets. The three loan portfolios have a combined book value of approximately $123 million, receivers Kerryn Downey and William Black of McGrathNicol said in announcing the deal today. However, the purchase price was kept secret.

The government on Friday said it would take three months to finalise the financial restructuring plan of cash-strapped national carrier Air India. "The exercise of finalising the financial restructuring plan and restructuring of loans would take about three months," civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi told the Lok Sabha in a written reply, the Hindustan Times reported. Ravi's reply comes just a few days ahead of a crucial meeting of a ministerial panel headed by finance inister Pranab Mukherjee.

China signaled that it intends to take a more active role in trying to calm chaotic global and domestic markets, pumping cash into its banking system and allowing its tightly controlled currency to climb higher for a fourth straight day, The Wall Street Journal reported. There was a widespread belief among domestic investors that the country's state pension fund had started heavily buying shares. That perception reversed a sharp fall in the Shanghai stock market and helped it to close higher in a tumultuous trading session. As the U.S.

As U.S. and European sovereign-debt concerns menace some of the world's biggest financial institutions, their Japanese counterparts are seen as less vulnerable given their small exposure, The Wall Street Journal reported. But other potential problems are growing, and could eventually end in a cascade, some industry observers say. "Japanese banks' exposure to European sovereign debts is small, so even in a pessimistic scenario, the risk of losses is limited," said Akira Takai, an analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets, in a recent report.