A consortium led by South Korean electric carmaker Edison Motors Co has agreed to acquire debt-ridden SsangYong Motor Co Ltd for 305 billion won ($254.65 million), SsangYong Motor said on Monday, Reuters reported. SsangYong is burdened with high debt and its vehicle sales last year fell to 84,496, down about 21% from a year earlier, a regulatory filing from the automaker showed. The automaker reported a January-September 2021 operating loss of 238 billion won from revenue of 1.8 trillion won.

Shimao Group Holdings Ltd., a bellwether for financial contagion in China’s embattled property industry, suffered its biggest-ever bond rout on Thursday after a creditor said one of the developer’s units defaulted on a local loan, Bloomberg News reported. The Shimao unit failed to pay 645 million yuan ($101 million) of a total 792 million yuan due by Dec. 25, according to a notice sent to investors by China Credit Trust Co. The trust firm had demanded early repayment by Dec. 25 after the developer failed to meet installment requirements, according to the notice.

China called on banks to boost real estate lending in the first quarter and eased a key debt restriction for developers, a sign that authorities are becoming increasingly concerned about the industry’s liquidity crisis, Bloomberg News reported. In previously unreported window guidance issued last month, regulators told banks to step up lending to developers after at least two quarters of consecutive declines, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.

Violent protests against the government in Kazakhstan led to intermittent internet shutdowns for a second day, as troops from a Russia-led military alliance arrived in the country to restore order. The lack of connectivity disrupted huge cryptocurrency mining operations in the country, which has become one of the world’s largest hubs for this activity, the New York Times reported. Creating, or mining, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is a power-hungry process in which vast computer networks compete online for newly created crypto tokens.

An Indian court has ordered a halt on Amazon.com Inc.’s arbitration case against Future Retail Ltd. in Singapore, a day after it had refused to interfere with the process, Bloomberg News reported. Following an appeal by Future Retail, a two-judge panel of the Delhi High Court overturned Tuesday’s verdict and stayed the arbitration process started by Amazon to stop the cash-strapped Indian retailer’s asset sale to Reliance Industries Ltd. until the next hearing on Feb. 1.

Singapore is about to get its first blank-check listings, as special purpose acquisition companies backed by Temasek Holdings Pte. and Tikehau Capital SCA kicked off their sales, Bloomberg News reported. Vertex Technology Acquisition Corporation Ltd., sponsored by state investor Temasek’s Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd., is seeking at least S$170 million ($125 million) in its initial public offering, while Tikehau-backed Pegasus Asia could raise at least S$150 million, prospectuses filed on Thursday showed.

A bankruptcy appeals court on Wednesday scrapped billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Twin Star Technologies' winning bid to take over Videocon Industries Ltd on a plea by some creditors that the money offered imposed a steep Rs 62,000 crore haircut upon banks, the Times of India reported.

The crisis engulfing China Evergrande Group deepened, as the embattled property developer said it had been ordered to tear down dozens of buildings on an extravagant man-made island in southern China, the Wall Street Journal reported. At the same time, Evergrande released data showing its much-publicized financial stress had largely halted sales of new homes, depriving it of an important source of cash. Contracted sales dwindled to about 720 million yuan, the equivalent of just $113 million, between mid-October and year-end, the company’s figures showed.

Mass protests in Kazakhstan over an increase in fuel prices have prompted the country’s authoritarian government to resign and the president to impose a state of emergency in a crisis that threatens to destabilize the oil-rich former Soviet republic, the Wall Street Journal reported. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has declared a two-week curfew in Kazakhstan’s western Mangistau region and in Almaty, the country’s largest city. The restrictions include a ban on mass gatherings and limitations on movement. Mr.

A wall of maturing debt and a surge in seasonal demand for cash will test China’s financial markets this month, putting pressure on the central bank to ensure sufficient liquidity, Bloomberg News reported. Demand for liquidity may total about 4.5 trillion yuan ($708 billion) in January, 18% more than the amount seen last year, according to calculations by Bloomberg based on official data and analysts’ estimates. An increase in the amount of policy loans coming due and demand for cash to be spent during the Lunar New Year, which takes place earlier in 2022, are drivers.