The pay television arm of Wollongong-based WIN Corporation has collapsed after several years of trading unprofitably, leaving a multimillion-dollar debt trail, the Illawarra Mercury reported. Satellite-based broadcaster SelecTV, headed by Andrew Gordon, son of WIN Corp owner Bruce Gordon, went into voluntary administration last week. WIN Corp seized control of SelecTV in 2006 in a $46.9 million takeover bid and has reportedly sunk more than $10 million into the business. Industry sources last year estimated it was losing $1 million a month.

The Afghan Central Bank on Monday sharply disputed accounts by The New York Times and several other publications that Afghanistan’s largest bank had hundreds of millions of dollars more in losses than previously publicized. In a statement and a news conference it said that Kabul Bank, the country’s largest, “had a bright future.” Kabul Bank, the country’s most politically connected as well as the largest, was crippled last fall when it became known that it had hundreds of millions of dollars in nonperforming loans.

A Canadian public-sector pension fund has joined a forestry management firm in a C$415 million (A$415 million) acquisition of Australian timber lands, capitalizing on a failed government investment scheme, the companies said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Alberta Investment Management Corp and a fund run by Australia's New Forests Pty Ltd are buying the timberland assets of Great Southern Plantations, which include more than 2,500 square km (965 square miles) of land in forestry and agricultural regions in six states. The pair are buying the assets out of receivership.

China said Thursday that for the first time it would allow some cities to impose a property tax on homeowners in the hope of curbing speculation in the housing market and also reducing the government’s reliance on land auctions for income, the International Herald Tribune reported. China’s State Council, or cabinet, announced the decision a day after releasing a broader set of measures aimed at taming housing prices and preventing a property bubble from threatening the nation’s fast-growing economy.

The besieged pub sector has gone from bad to worse with industry claims that up to 90 per cent of pubs currently on the market are facing some sort of financial pressure, The Australian reported. The estimate, along with 2011 forecasts of a further softening of yields -- which have already caused a 40 per cent fall in pub values -- is the latest setback for the debt-laden sector which last week claimed its latest scalp, Sydney's Icon Hospitality Group of companies.

Standard & Poor's cut Japan's credit rating on Thursday for the first time since 2002, saying Tokyo lacked a plan to deal with its mounting debt, in a warning that will rattle other heavily indebted rich nations, Reuters reported. The agency reduced Japan's long-term sovereign debt rating by one notch to AA minus, three levels below the highest possible rating. It said Japan's fast-aging population, persistent deflation and the loss of the coalition's upper house majority had compounded the government's fiscal challenge.

Vietnam's inflation posted another double-digit rise ahead of the Lunar New Year, adding pressure on authorities to raise interest rates to slow the nation's growth and curb pressure on its currency, The Wall Street Journal reported. The nation has struggled to deal with several economic stresses, fueling concerns about the government's ability to manage fiscal policy as the trade deficit balloons and the Vietnamese dong remains persistently weak, bucking a trend across the region.

Korea Line Corp., South Korea’s second-largest operator of dry-bulk ships, filed for receivership after a global oversupply of vessels caused rates to tumble to the lowest in almost two years, Bloomberg reported. The shipping line intends to maintain operations, it said today in an e-mailed statement, after making the filing at the Seoul Central District Court. The company, which didn’t say how large its debts were, is seeking to freeze assets. Korea Line, unprofitable in six of the past seven quarters, halted its shares as it works to restructure debt.

Dubai Group LLC, the investment company seeking payment relief on $6 billion of loans, appointed eight banks to represent creditors in two committees as it tries to speed up agreement on a debt restructuring plan, Bloomberg reported. The committees were set up to bring the restructuring talks to a quicker conclusion, said a spokeswoman for Dubai Group, who declined to be identified because of company policy. The members have been selected to be representative of all lender groups, she said by telephone.

Japanese private-equity fund Advantage Partners LLP is in talks with creditors about giving up board seats at Tokyo Star Bank Ltd. and control over the eventual sale of the lender, a person familiar with the matter said, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Dallas-based investor Lone Star Funds and other lenders are discussing with Advantage Partners restructuring the roughly Y160 billion in loans, worth $1.9 billion at current exchange rates, that the Japanese fund took out to buy Tokyo Star, according to people familiar with the matter.