Thai Airways International Pcl won court approval on Tuesday to restructure a debt load of $12.9 billion as the airline, which is already in bankruptcy protection, seeks to turn around its fortunes, Reuters reported. The court ruling removes the last hurdle to implementation of the plan, seen as critical for the carrier which last year posted a record loss of about $4.5 billion. In its order, the Central Bankruptcy Court in Bangkok said it approved the rehabilitation plan. It did not make any changes to the plan that had been approved by creditors.

The plastic raw material traders and product manufacturers of the city are passing through the worst phase of their lives with about 70% of them close to shutting shops and factories and facing bankruptcy, the Times of India reported. Huge rise in the rates of raw materials during the past one year and a fall in demand are to be blamed for the situation. This was revealed by the Plastic Manufacturers’ and Traders’ Association (PMTA), which claimed that rates of raw materials have gone up by four times in some cases and sales reduced to 25%.

Centerra Gold Inc. could part ways with Kyrgyzstan’s government over its seized flagship mine in the Central Asian nation, but the company’s top executive would like to discuss it first, Bloomberg News reported. Relations between Centerra and the Kyrgyz Republic have soured so much since the government took control of Kumtor gold mine that it would be difficult to go back to the way things were, said Chief Executive Officer Scott Perry.

Britain and Australia announced a free trade deal on Tuesday which the British government hailed as an important step in building new trade relationships following its departure from the European Union, Reuters reported. Britain said cars, Scotch whisky and confectionery would be cheaper to sell in Australia because of the agreement, which removes tariffs and reduces red tape. Australia said it was a "great win" for Australian agriculture. The deal is the first bilateral trade accord Britain has negotiated from scratch since leaving the EU last year.

The size and type of defaults that have occurred in China in recent times indicate that the notion of “too big to fail” may no longer apply to the nation’s borrowers, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bloomberg News reported. There has been a noticeable up-tick in defaults by Chinese state-owned enterprises since late 2019 and some of the borrowers that have failed to repay debt recently such as China Fortune Land Development Co. have had large amounts of outstanding bonds, analysts including Kenneth Ho wrote in a report dated Friday.

China is using the eastern province of Zhejiang to test a series of initiatives to promote “common prosperity” as the country grapples with gaps between urban and rural development, unequal income distribution and a lack of consistency in development, The Hill reported.

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak faltered in his bid to get a High Court to halt bankruptcy proceedings against him for failing to pay a tax bill totalling RM1.74 billion (S$560 million), Bloomberg News reported. Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Ahmad Bache on Monday dismissed Najib’s application for a stay of execution, according to an email exchange between the court and relevant parties. Separately, the court of appeal will hear Najib’s plea on June 16, according to his lawyer Farhan Shafee.

A series of coronavirus outbreaks in Thai factories is raising concerns that the export sector could be hit hard, threatening to further undermine an economy as it struggles to recover from the pandemic's crippling blow to the crucial tourism industry, Reuters reported. The virus has swept through over 130 factories, including those supplying international brands, with more than 7,100 cases across 11 provinces, making manufacturing one of the top sources of infections along with prisons and construction camps.

Indorama Ventures Ltd (IVL) has competed the acquisition of the recycled polyethylene terephthalic (R-PET) assets of CarbonLite Holdings and its subsidiaries in Dallas, Texas, the Thailand-listed producer said today, ICIS.com reported. IVL has completed all formalities with regards to the acquisition "and has taken charge of the plant effective from 11 June 2021", it said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand. IVL won a $63.8m bid for CarbonLite's Dallas rPET facility during a May 24 auction. CarbonLite in March this year filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S.

Creditors of PT Sri Rejeki Isman, Indonesia’s biggest listed clothing firm, have submitted about 20 trillion rupiah ($1.4 billion) of outstanding claims as part of a debt-restructuring process, Bloomberg News reported. The claims include about 700 billion rupiah submitted by secured creditors and around 19 trillion rupiah from unsecured creditors as of June 10, according to Alfin Sulaiman, a member of an administrator team appointed by Indonesia’s Semarang commercial court. Verification is ongoing and the final amount will be released soon, Sulaiman said on Friday.