Hong Kong bankruptcy petitions totalled 704 in December, up 3.4 percent from November but down 22.4 percent compared with the same month last year, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The number of bankruptcy petitions totalled 9,102 for the whole of 2010, down 42.3 percent from a year earlier. Bankruptcy orders stood at 9,163 for the year 2010, down 43.3 percent from a year ago. Hong Kong's economy has bounced back strongly from the global financial crisis.

Christchurch finance company Finance & Leasing says its inability to meet the new Reserve Bank capital ratio requirements has forced it into receivership – and that it's not the only company in that position, Stuff.co.nz reported. Director Kipp Alexander said the company had remained solvent throughout the financial crisis and recession, but because it could not meet the requirements in time, it could not obtain approval from the Companies Office for its prospectus extension, which was lodged in December.

Perth property developer Luke Saraceni transferred $1.33 million into one of his private companies as receivers prepared to swoop on the troubled Raine Square project last week, creditors were told yesterday, The Australian reported. Administrator Bryan Hughes, of Pitcher Partners, said he was investigating the transaction, which was likely to fall under the insolvency transaction provisions of the Corporations Act.

Drydocks World (DDW), a unit of debt-ridden Dubai World, expects talks on terms of its core debt to be concluded with months, after agreeing a new $200 million credit facility, an official statement said, Reuters reported. The shipbuilding arm of Dubai World said last year it was in talks with banks to restructure $1.7 billion in debt maturing in November 2011.

One year after its spectacular bankruptcy filing, Japan Airlines on Wednesday faced a lawsuit from 146 former pilots and cabin attendants calling for their jobs back after being made redundant, Agence France-Presse reported. The case, filed with the Tokyo District Court, claims JAL management did not do enough to avoid the layoffs. The company's court-approved rehabilitation plan calls for cutting about 16,000 jobs.

The listed pub fund ING Real Estate Entertainment Fund’s chances of ever getting millions of dollars in rent from its largest tenant appear slim, after Icon Hospitality was placed into receivership today, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Icon, which owns the leasehold to 11 hotels in and around Sydney, was placed into receivership by its bankers, Commonwealth Bank. It is owned by prominent hoteliers Damien Reed and Peter Wynne, and owes more than $60 million to the bank.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Japan is in a “crisis” comparable to the bankruptcy that Japan Airlines Corp. faced a year ago, Bloomberg reported. Kan spoke after meeting with JAL chairman Kazuo Inamori, whose airline filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 19, 2010. The carrier is shrinking overseas routes and cutting aircraft, having eliminated about 14,500 jobs to lower costs. Japan Air had a third-quarter operating profit of 110 billion yen ($1.3 billion), compared with a 96 billion yen loss a year earlier.

Receivers for Burrup Fertilisers are examining whether an Australia-India extradiction treaty could be used against Pankaj Oswal, The Australian reported. Mr Oswal left Australia just before ANZ Bank appointed receivers to his fertiliser empire on December 17. He confirmed at the weekend that he and his family would not return to Perth. He said he was living in New Delhi but may relocate to Dubai, close to where he has plans to develop a $400 million caustic soda plant in Oman.

Singapore’s bankruptcy applications last year fell to the lowest level since 1996 as the city- state’s economy rebounded, posting the world’s fastest growth after Qatar, Bloomberg reported. The number of bankruptcy filings dropped 20 percent to 2,202 in 2010 from a year earlier, according to data on the Ministry of Law’s website. Bankruptcy applications last year were less than half of the 5,404 cases at the peak in 2003. Singapore’s economic growth reached 14.7 percent last year as manufacturing surged, capping the biggest annual increase in output since independence in 1965.

Hyundai Motor Group on Friday signed a preliminary agreement to buy Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. in a deal worth up to $4.72 billion, a step that brings nearer the completion of the drawn-out sale process for South Korea's largest construction company, which has been marked by a fierce family feud, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Hyundai E&C, the founding component of what was once the country's largest conglomerate, was put on the block in July.