Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India’s biggest maker of sport-utility vehicles, is the preferred bidder for a controlling stake in Ssangyong Motor Co., the South Korean automaker said today, Bloomberg reported. Ssangyong, operating under bankruptcy protection, plans to sign a preliminary agreement with Mahindra by the end of August and aims to sign a contract for the sale in November, it said in a statement to the Korea Exchange. The company will begin talks with Indian rolling stock maker Raghav Industries Ltd.

Youth unemployment across the world has climbed to a new high and is likely to climb further this year, a United Nations agency said Thursday, while warning of a “lost generation” as more young people give up the search for work, The New York Times reported. The agency, the International Labor Organization, said in a report that of some 620 million young people ages 15 to 24 in the work force, about 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009 — the highest level in two decades of record-keeping by the organization, which is based in Geneva.

The civil aviation ministry is awaiting guidelines from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on a debt restructuring package for the aviation sector, as it will help the ailing airlines bridge mounting losses, DNA India reported. "The RBI has to come up with guidelines for the restructuring of debt of the aviation sector. As far as my ministry is concerned, we support it... I believe that the RBI is actively looking into the issue," civil aviation minister Praful Patel told reporters in New Delhi.

Plunging fruit prices and a run of bad weather have tipped orchard industry stalwart John Corboy's business into receivership. Acting on behalf of Westpac, receivers James Stewart and Peter McCluskey of Ferrier Hodgson took control of Corboy Fresh Fruit on Friday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Mr Corboy, a tireless campaigner against loosening restrictions on overseas fruit entering Australia, said his business had endured ''a very tough decade''. He said the business had been forced to buy water because of drought and endured two ''one-in-a-hundred-year frosts''.

The destruction of the old Hanover debenture holders' wealth will continue if Allied Farmers' planned $19 million equity raising ever makes it off the ground, The Dominion Post reported in a commentary. The temporary delay announced this week in Allied Farmers' capital raising shows what a tightrope the company is walking, trying to placate bankers, trustees and underwriters. It has to fix its core debt problem and problems with its finance company with only limited access to new capital.

Japan Airlines Corp, the debt-ridden group undergoing a state-backed rehabilitation process, will cut its workforce by 19,133 by the end of March 2015, the Kyodo news agency reported, citing a final draft of JAL's rehabilitation plan. The draft said JAL will expand its previously announced retirement program and shed 8,339 jobs through fiscal 2014 ending March 2015, the Japanese news agency said. JAL's earlier plan was to cut about 16,000 jobs during the current fiscal year started April, the news agency said.

The Breakers restaurant chain plans to continue expanding, despite the receivership of two related firms, BusinessDay.co.nz reported. The franchise firm will soon open Breakers Cafe and Bar sites in Gisborne and Dannevirke, and look to head to the South Island. National franchising manager Simon Withnall said yesterday that Breakers New Zealand Franchising Ltd, owned by Mark and Penny Burt, was not adversely affected by two other Burt firms going into receivership.

Investors in failed finance company Strategic Finance are to get their first payout since the company was placed in receivership, TVNZ reported. Receivers PricewaterhouseCooper announced a payout next month of between 1.5 and 2.5 cents in the dollar to approximately 13,000 investors. Strategic Finance and its associated companies went into moratorium two years ago owing investors around $400 million dollars. In March this year, they were placed into receivership with their loan books estimated at $229 million.

Dubai International Capital, the private equity arm of the Gulf Arab emirate, said it will focus on bringing German aluminium maker Almatis out of bankruptcy after a long-running battle with a dissident lender ended, Reuters Africa reported. Oaktree Capital Management LP withdrew its opposition to DIC's plan to retain control of the bankrupt firm after a settlement offer was leaked. Oaktree and Dubai have been battling over the best way to refinance Almatis, which filed for bankruptcy in the United States with more than $1 billion in debt, for the past year.

Lombard Finance and Investments' receiver has advised of a further payment to investors and is sticking to an estimate of a final payout in the 15 to 24 per cent range, The New Zealand Herald reported. Secured debenture holders received 6.5c in the dollar last December. A further three cents in the dollar would be paid on Thursday or close to that date, the receiver PricewaterhouseCooper said. The receivers said the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) had yet to finalise its claims in the receiverships.