Asia Pacific

Funai Electric, a Japanese maker of audio and video equipment, received court approval for its bankruptcy plan on Thursday, credit research firm Teikoku Databank said, the Japan Times reported. Funai Electric, based in Daito, Osaka Prefecture, had some ¥46.1 billion ($303.6 million) in liabilities, Teikoku Databank said. Founded in 1961, the company had boasted a significant presence in Japan and abroad as an original equipment manufacturer.

China’s central bank kept a key policy rate steady in October, a widely expected move after officials made a flurry of rate cuts last month to support the ailing economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The People’s Bank of China on Friday injected 700 billion yuan of liquidity into the country’s banking system via its one-year medium-term lending facility at an unchanged rate of 2.0%. That compared with a total of 789 billion yuan of MLF loans due this month, marking a net cash withdrawal of 89 billion yuan.

China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle said on Friday that its potential sellers have decided to cease talks for a stake sale in the company, which is the electric vehicle unit of the debt-laden China Evergrande, Reuters reported. In May, liquidators of the parent company - which held 58.5% in the EV unit - said they were talking to a third-party buyer to sell a 29% stake in the EV group, with an option to sell the rest of the holding within a certain period of time.

Funai Electric, a Japanese midsize electronics manufacturer and Walmart supplier, has received court approval to start bankruptcy proceedings, it was revealed on Thursday, having fallen victim to intensifying competition with Chinese and South Korean manufacturers, Nikkei Asia reported. A quasi-bankruptcy petition was filed for Funai at Tokyo District Court. A normal bankruptcy petition is filed by the company itself, but when circumstances make that impossible, a company director or other party can file for quasi-bankruptcy in its place.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has directed initiation of insolvency proceedings against realty firm Spaze Towers, admitting a plea filed by its flat owners, the Economic Times of India reported. A two-member NCLT bench said that the company has defaulted in completing the construction of flats in project 'Spaze Arrow' at Sector 78, Gurugram and giving the possession within the promised timeline of 42 months.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Wednesday it was "still taking time" to sustainably achieve its 2% inflation target, signaling that the central bank will tread carefully in pushing up the country's still near-zero interest rates, Reuters reported. But he also warned of the cost of moving too slowly in raising rates, which could give speculators an excuse to trigger an unwelcome yen slide that pushes up import costs. "When there's huge uncertainty, you usually want to proceed cautiously and gradually," Ueda said at a panel at the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday.

India’s top court struck down a bankruptcy tribunal’s order that allowed Byju’s to settle debts with a key creditor, pushing the online tutor back firmly into the insolvency process, Bloomberg News reported. The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal didn’t follow due legal procedure when it allowed a debt settlement between Byju’s and India’s cricket regulator.

Pakistan is getting a promising response from China over its request to lengthen maturities for Belt and Road Initiative loans, according to its finance minister, signaling potentially more breathing room for the nation that has been squeezed by costly borrowing in the past, Bloomberg News reported. The South Asian nation is looking to increase the maturities for debt taken to build power plants and “create enough space” to lower electricity prices, Muhammad Aurangzeb said in an interview in Washington.

After three decades of ultra-loose monetary policy, even small hikes in interest rates by the Bank of Japan are poised to fuel an increase in the number of zombie companies that could be tipped into insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcies topped 5,000 cases for the first time in a decade between April and September, a report by Tokyo Shoko Research showed earlier this month. Those 5,095 firms collectively account for almost ¥1.38 trillion ($9.2 billion) yen in debt, with the largest slice coming from the service industry.