Vadraj Cement, which was stuck in liquidation for more than five years under the Bombay High Court, has been shifted to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for debt resolution, giving lenders a glimmer of hope to recover more than half of their dues, the Economic Times or India reported. Last Friday, NCLT pronounced an order to admit Vadraj Cement, formerly known as ABG Cement, for corporate insolvency process. Adani Group, UltraTech Cement and JSW Cement may bid to acquire the debt-laden company, lenders said.

Thousands of real-estate projects in China are set to receive funding under Beijing’s new “whitelist” financing program, as policymakers intensify efforts to rescue the property sector from a deepening liquidity crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. By the end of January, 170 cities in China’s 26 provinces had proposed their first batch of more than 3,000 favored projects to commercial banks, with a total 17.86 billion yuan ($2.48 billion) of loans already earmarked for 83 such projects, state media reported Sunday, citing official sources.

Hours before a court hearing that would decide the fate of Evergrande, its biggest bondholders faced a stark choice: split control of the sprawling property developer with more than a dozen Chinese banks or risk putting the company out of business for good, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In the end, the bondholders decided to back a wind-down of Evergrande after it tried to push through a deal that would have given Chinese banks control of most of the developer, while imposing steep losses on foreign creditors like themselves.

When Kris Lin, who owns a lighting factory in China, received this year's first order from a close overseas client, he faced a distressing choice: take it at a loss, or tell workers not to come back after the Lunar New Year, Reuters reported. "It was impossible for me to lose this order," said Lin, who plans to re-start his factory in the eastern city of Taizhou at around half its capacity after the Feb. 10-17 holiday break. "I could have lost this client forever, and it would have endangered livelihoods for so many people.

Shares of South Korean financial stocks fell after an industry watchdog said banks and other firms in the sector will face “stern measures” if they charge excessive interest rates or engage in other misconduct, Bloomberg News reported. “Starting this year, financial companies evading responsibility by disregarding customers’ profit or not recognizing the losses that they have to will face stern measures and even risk getting kicked out from the market,” Lee Bokhyun, the Financial Supervisory Service’s governor, said in a prepared statement Monday to address its 2024 agenda.

Turkey’s central bank governor resigned late on Friday after less than a year in office, marking the latest turbulence in a major world economy that has suffered a series of economic crises in recent years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Turkey has had five central bank governors in the past five years under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who pressured the bank into cutting interest rates in 2021 despite the country’s high inflation rate, triggering a currency crisis.

A U.S. unit of Indian education technology startup Byju's has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. court of Delaware, listing liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion, Reuters reported. Byju's Alpha unit listed its assets in the range of $500 million to $1 billion, according to a court filing, which showed estimated creditors in the range of 100 to 199. The ed-tech company, founded by Byju Raveendran, was one of India's hottest startups, valued at $22 billion in 2022, but has more recently seen lenders initiating bankruptcy proceedings against it.

China aims to ramp up financing for home projects in the coming days as part of its support measures, but banks' reluctance to lend to the crisis-hit sector will remain a major obstacle for the distressed developers who need fresh funding the most, Reuters reported. Under the "project whitelist" mechanism, governments of 35 cities across the country are gearing up to recommend to banks residential projects that need financial support. Distressed developers are hoping the new mechanism will bring succor with some of their projects getting included in the whitelist.

The end of China Evergrande is near, and foreign investors face a long, and likely bumpy, road trying to recover billions of dollars of their investments in the beleaguered property developer. The process will serve as a lesson for fund managers of the potential risks in investing in China’s distressed assets, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. On Monday, Hong Kong’s high court ordered the liquidation of Evergrande, putting an end to repeated extensions trying to save the company from being dissolved.