Banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) have called on the Indian government to give debt-laden Vodafone Idea more time to clear its tax dues and spectrum fees, Reuters reported. An Indian court last year ordered the mobile carrier, a joint venture between the Indian unit of Britain’s Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular, to pay just over $8 billion to the government to settle long-standing dues. Vodafone has a stake of about 44% in the company and Aditya Birla owns nearly 27%.

The new owners of Jet Airways have deferred the commencement of its operations for the fourth time in a year, even as the airline continues to be trapped in legal wrangles with lenders and employees, the Economic Times of India reported. Jet stopped operating in April 2019, burdened under piling losses, debt and dues. It was admitted for insolvency proceedings by the National Company Law Tribunal in June 2019.

Coronavirus-induced business failures in Japan rose 49% in August to 121 from a year earlier amid a fourth wave of COVID infections, Nikkei Asia reported. Analysis from research specialist Tokyo Shoko Research published Wednesday found that the total number of coronavirus-induced bankruptcies from January to August reached 1,026, accounting for around 26% of all business failures in Japan over the period. The restaurant and bar businesses have been hit hardest.

The Indian Supreme Court on Monday said that 330 days deadline for resolution plan has to be strictly adhered to and NCLT and NCLAT must decide insolvency and bankruptcy matters keeping in mind the sanctity of the deadline provided by legislature. A SC bench headed, by Justice D Y Chandrachud, said that earlier bankruptcy code failed mainly because of long delays in litigation in judicial forums and promised that the present IBC will not be allowed to meet the same fate.

Australia's competition regulator on Monday denied authorisation for Qantas Airways and Japan Airlines (JAL) to coordinate flights between the two countries, citing competition concerns as international travel is set to resume, Reuters reported. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chairman Rod Sims said the regulator was not satisfied that the public benefits of the proposed joint business agreement would outweigh harm to competition.

A sale of Australia's biggest airport moved closer on Monday as an infrastructure investor group won permission to conduct due diligence on Sydney Airport Holdings Pt Ltd, after sweetening its takeover offer to A$23.6 billion ($17.4 billion), Reuters reported. The move sent the airport's shares up 5%, with analysts saying a rival bid appeared unlikely given the scale of the funding needed and foreign ownership rules that mean the airport must remain 51% Australian owned.

China Evergrande Group is facing mounting protests by homebuyers, retail investors and even its own employees, raising the stakes for authorities in Beijing as they try to prevent the property giant’s debt crisis from sparking social unrest, Bloomberg News reported. Police descended on Evergrande’s Shenzhen headquarters late Monday after dozens of people gathered to demand repayments on overdue wealth management products. Protesters numbered in the hundreds on Sunday, Caixin reported.

Japan Airlines Co. plans to raise about 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) via subordinated bonds and loans to shore up its capital in case the coronavirus pandemic hurts travel demand longer than it expects, Bloomberg News reported. The Tokyo-based carrier said it secured around 200 billion yen in loans from four Japanese banks and plans to sell 100 billion yen of bonds. The financing is partly a “preventive measure” to counter the long-term business impact of Covid-19, general manager of finance Yuichiro Kito told reporters.

Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. won a four-year battle for control of money from an arbitration award that it says it needs to repay lenders, Bloomberg News reported. A two-judge panel of the Indian Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the 2017 arbitration award in favor of the Anil Ambani’s unit. The arbitration tribunal award is worth over 46.6 billion rupees ($632 million) including interest, according to Reliance Infrastructure’s annual report. Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. won a four-year battle for control of money from an arbitration award that it says it needs to repay lenders.

Turkish lenders are resisting demands from the banking regulator to curb growth in consumer credit, which authorities blame for fueling inflation and the current-account deficit, Bloomberg News reported. The executives of top Turkish banks faced off against Mehmet Ali Akben, head of the banking regulator, last Thursday, according to the minutes of their meeting, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg.