Troubled Saudi conglomerates Saad Group and Ahmad Hamad al-Gosaibi & Bros Co will meet creditors this month to restructure $10 billion of debt, a Saudi newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed bankers. Al-Hayat newspaper said the two firms would talk to their creditors over the next two weeks in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Great Britain. The paper said that there were more than 100 creditors that would agree to major debt restructuring. This is the first time a figure has been given for the size of the debts. Al-Hayat did not say how much each company had in debt.

Beijing is diversifying its overseas investments and pressing U.S. officials for an "exit strategy" from the ultra-loose fiscal and monetary policies that China fears will eventually inflate away the value of its U.S. bond holdings and fell the dollar. But China's pragmatic policymakers also know there is no practical alternative to the dollar as the world's main reserve currency.

The head of the IMF questioned on Monday any debate about when to roll back stimulus spending, saying the world economy had yet to weather the worst of a recession that claimed a record number of European jobs. The 16-country euro zone lost a record 1.22 million jobs in the first quarter, official data showed. Employment during the first quarter fell 1.2 percent year-on-year, the deepest annual drop since measurements started in 1995. Even if some form of economic recovery is not far off, analysts say unemployment will climb for many months to come.

PT Bakrie & Brothers, one of Indonesia's largest conglomerates with interests in mining, energy and telecoms, is emerging from a $1.3 billion debt restructuring in control of its major companies. Last year, Bakrie & Brothers' financial position looked untenable. It racked up huge debts, in return pledging to lenders its shares in related companies as collateral. When share prices in its companies unexpectedly collapsed during the global subprime crisis, Bakrie & Brothers was unable to top up its collateral and was forced into debt talks.

OZ Minerals Ltd. shareholders Thursday approved the sale of US$1.39 billion of assets to China Minmetals Non-ferrous Metals Co. with the transaction now set to be completed within a week, The Wall Street Journal reported. Minmetals increased its offer to US$1.39 billion from US$1.2 billion late Wednesday, shortly after a rival 1.4 billion Australian dollar (US$1.13 billion) recapitalization proposal from Macquarie Group Ltd. was withdrawn.

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding has expressed interest in acquiring Volvo, becoming the second Chinese company to eye the Swedish unit of Ford Motor Co., according to three people familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal reported. A team of executives from Chinese government-owned Beijing Auto was expected to visit Volvo's Swedish headquarters as early as Thursday to meet with its executives and tour its research-and-development and manufacturing facilities, the knowledgeable people said.

Li & Fung Ltd., which supplies retailers worldwide, declined in Hong Kong trading after client Arcandor AG, a German department-store operator, filed for insolvency, Bloomberg reported. Arcandor contributes about 5 percent, or $700 million, of Li & Fung’s sales, Managing Director William Fung said today. The Hong Kong company that’s the biggest supplier of clothes and toys to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. said today it’s owed $5.4 million by Arcandor.

Chinese state media have confirmed plans to merge China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines, creating an aviation company with a dominant position in domestic hub Shanghai, Agence France-Presse reported. “Starting June 8, China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines officially began their restructuring procedures," said Liu Jiangbo, a China Eastern spokesman, according to Xinhua news agency late Monday. He declined to provide any further details, according to Xinhua.

The Gulf state of Qatar is considering buying a big stake in either Volkswagen or its majority owner Porsche, the BBC reported. VW said in a statement that it would welcome the investment because it would speed up its merger with Porsche. The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is in advanced talks about buying up to 25% of Porsche, according to a report in the Financial Times. Porsche owns more than 50% of VW, but suspended attempts to buy a controlling stake of 75% when it ran out of money.

Japan's akoya pearl industry, which began in the 1890s when Kokichi Mikimoto created the world's first cultured pearls, is facing collapse due to plunging sales and stiff competition from China, Reuters reported. In the small fishing town of Wagu on central Japan's Ago bay, about half of the 45 growers are about to close down their pearl beds after prices halved this year, sending them even deeper into the red. Saltwater akoya oyster pearls have long been a benchmark of quality in the industry, with domestic production peaking at 88.5 billion yen ($900 million) in 1990.