PT Garuda Indonesia needs at least $1 billion of additional funds to cut debt and stay afloat, as the government says it could give up its majority control of the troubled flag carrier, Bloomberg News reported. Garuda is currently in talks with creditors to restructure $6.3 billion worth of debt and expects to reach an agreement in the second quarter of 2022, according to Kartika Wirjoatmodjo, a deputy minister at Indonesia’s State-Owned Enterprises Ministry.

Thai Airways International Pcl will sell 42 planes and cut nearly a third of its workforce as part of a plan to slim down the fleet and cut costs, the head of its restructuring committee said on Monday, Reuters reported. The airline, which was in difficulty well before the pandemic struck, is going through a bankruptcy-protected restructuring. Piyasvasti Amranand, who is leading the effort, said that the planes being sold are old and not energy efficient. He said 16 jets on lease will be returned. After the sale, the airline will have 58 planes across four types.

AirAsia X Bhd.’s shares dived by the most in more than a year after the long haul budget airline was officially categorized as a financially distressed firm, which gives the company a year to recast its finances or risk losing its Malaysian listing, Bloomberg News reported. The stock tumbled as much as 21.1% to 7.5 sen on Monday, set for the steepest drop since August 2020. The shares traded at 8 sen at 10:40 a.m. local time amid volume that was six times the average for this time of day.

Japan's automobile sales slumped 31.3% in October from a year earlier to mark the fourth straight month of declines, industry data showed on Monday, a sign output cuts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic were hurting the country's already weak consumption, Reuters reported. The domestic sales data is among few indicators available so far in gauging the strength of consumption since state of emergency curbs to combat the pandemic were lifted on Sept. 30. The sales slump highlights the widening damage of supply disruptions on the economy.

China Evergrande Group avoided default for a second time by making an overdue interest payment on dollar bonds shortly before the end of a 30-day grace period, the Wall Street Journal reported. Evergrande, one of China’s largest real-estate developers, made a coupon payment that was originally due on Sept. 29, the people said. Evergrande was on the hook to pay about $45 million of interest on $951 million of bonds, which have a 9.5% coupon and mature in 2024, according to CreditSights research.

Bank of Japan chief Haruhiko Kuroda said there is scant risk of the country’s inflation accelerating in the same way it has elsewhere in the world as he reinforced the message that stimulus will keep rolling in Tokyo even as other central banks pare theirs back, Bloomberg News reported. Inflation trends overseas and moves by the Federal Reserve and other monetary authorities won’t sway BOJ policy or soften the yen, Kuroda said at a press briefing after the central bank stood pat on policy and lowered its price and growth forecasts.

China’s largest cross-border brokers plummeted in U.S. trading after a central bank official questioned the legitimacy of their operations amid Beijing’s continuing crackdown on private enterprise, Bloomberg News reported. These online brokers are engaged in “illegal financial activities” because they have no “driving licenses” to operate in China, Sun Tianqi, a senior People’s Bank of China official wrote in an article published on the website of Finance 40 Forum. Sun didn’t name the brokers, and added that calling them illegal has nothing to do China’s capital control rules.

Singapore’s highest court has dismissed an appeal by oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin and his two children after they were successfully sued for breach of fiduciary duties by the court-appointed managers of a company they once owned, Reuters reported. Lim is the founder of defunct Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd and Ocean Tankers, once one of Asia’s largest oil trading and shipping firms, which both went under judicial management in 2020, after oil prices collapsed.

Junk-bond issuance by China’s riskier companies has nearly ground to a halt, creating more challenges for the country’s real-estate developers that need to roll over more than $40 billion in dollar debt by the end of next year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sales of new junk bonds in dollars by Chinese borrowers this month have fallen by about 90% from their five-year average to $352 million as of Wednesday, Dealogic data shows, reflecting just two deals from smaller developers.

Five years after its controversial creation, the Hilltops Council in southern NSW has backed a motion to implement tough budget cuts in a bid to balance the books, ABC.net reported. The council was formed in 2016 by the amalgamation of the Boorowa, Harden, and Young Shires. Since then, it has struggled financially and the motion passed at this week's meeting is designed to balance the books through a number of cost-cutting measures. It came after general manager Anthony O'Reilly warned: "continued annual deficits are unsustainable".