China Evergrande Group creditors are set to recover just a fraction of the billions of dollars worth of the builder’s debt they hold, with most of its assets likely hard to access for liquidators, Bloomberg News reported. Almost all of Evergrande’s assets are in mainland China, presenting legal hurdles for non-Chinese administrators. The key Hong Kong holdings add up to just $2.9 billion compared with $25.4 billion in offshore liabilities as of the end of June 2022, according to a court document and Bloomberg’s calculations.

Property developer China Evergrande Group has been ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court, bringing an end to the yearslong saga of a company whose default rippled through the world’s second-largest economy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The liquidation order came despite an 11th-hour push by the company’s creditors to reach a deal over the weekend, according to people familiar with the matter. It comes more than two years after the company defaulted on its dollar bonds, becoming one of the first dominoes to fall in China’s beleaguered real-estate sector.

An estimated 233 home developers in China filed for bankruptcy last year, according to the China Real Estate Association, the Taiwan News reported. The highest number of bankruptcies was in Zhejiang Province, with 36 cases accounting for 15.45% of the nation’s total. Hunan and Guangdong provinces were second and third respectively. However, the report added the number of bankruptcies for 2023 was the lowest since 2020. There were 408 home developers who filed for bankruptcy in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 343 in 2021, and 308 in 2022.

China’s deflation pressures are likely to continue for at least another six months on weak demand and as the property crisis continues to sap confidence within the economy, Bloomberg News reported. A measure of economy-wide prices called the gross domestic product deflator is expected to decline for at least two more quarters, according to 12 of 19 economists in a new Bloomberg survey. That gauge — which measures the difference between nominal and real GDP growth — has already fallen for the last three quarters, and a continued drop through June would mark the longest streak since 1999.

China will halt the lending of certain shares for short selling from Monday, the securities regulator announced Sunday, in a move to support the country’s slumping stock markets, Bloomberg News reported. Strategic investors won’t be allowed to lend out shares during agreed lock-up periods, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange said in separate releases following the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s statement.

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted city-based Four Care Hospital under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) in an application filed by Standard Chartered Bank, the Economic Times of India reported. The tribunal has also appointed Rajan Garg as its resolution professional. In this case, originally the company's promoter had availed a loan facility from Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL). Subsequently, that loan was acquired by Standard Chartered Bank.

Singapore’s central bank kept its monetary policy settings unchanged for a third straight time amid expectations for inflation to ease only later this year — a decision that suggests any easing could be farther down the road, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which uses the exchange rate as its main policy tool rather than interest rates, maintained the slope, width, and center of the currency band, it said in a statement Monday. The move will keep the local dollar on an appreciating path to blunt imported price gains.

A key offshore bondholder group of China Evergrande (3333.HK), opens new tab plans to join a petition to liquidate the developer at a hearing in a Hong Kong court on Monday, Reuters reported this week. The bondholder group owns more than $2 billion in offshore notes guaranteed by Evergrande and its support to a winding-up petition against the world's most indebted developer increases the chances of an immediate liquidation order from the court, lawyers in the industry said.

Hemant Kanoria-promoted Sarga Hotels, which operates a five-star hotel under the Westin brand in Kolkata, will be acquired by Shri Ram Multicom under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process, the Economic Times of India reported. The Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal approved a Rs 301 crore resolution plan against Rs 816 crore admitted claims from creditors, employees, and trade creditors. Shri Ram Multicom has developed Fairfield Hotel, a budget category hotel and operates malls and hotels in Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

Resources conglomerate Vedanta will seek to cut debt by up to $2 billion in the next fiscal as it focuses on generating free cash flow by managing costs and enhancing volumes, chief financial officer Ajay Goel told ET, the Economic Times of India reported. The Anil Agarwal-owned company is also looking at generating operating profit of $7 - $7.5 billion in FY25. "As a company, we have many priorities, but all other priorities remain subservient to the priority of deleveraging," Goel told ET in an exclusive interaction.