Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) says its filing of a RM78mil lawsuit against AirAsia X (AAX) will not derail the latter’s debt restructuring scheme. “Malaysia Airports is pursuing its legal rights to recover the debt from AAX which is critical for the upkeep and maintenance of the airports, ” it said, The Star reported.

Turkey’s ruling party laid out details of a plan to restructure some debts and administrative fines in an effort to support companies under pressure from the coronavirus crisis, Bloomberg News reported. The plan includes tax debts, administrative fines and social security payments. The proposal amounts to about 500 billion liras ($63 billion) of restructuring, Mehmet Mus, the AK Party’s parliamentary whip, said on Friday, according to the Sabah newspaper. The proposed bill has been approved by the planning and budget commission of parliament.

Japan’s banking system remains stable as a whole and has sufficient buffers against risks, the central bank said in a semi-annual report, voicing confidence that domestic financial institutions can withstand the hit from the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reported. But the Bank of Japan warned that commercial banks were vulnerable to various risks including rising credit costs, as loans to pandemic-hit sectors like property developers may sour.

A pandemic-exacerbated surge in Thai bad loans to nine-year highs and the end of a debt payment holiday are prompting buyers of distressed debt to embark on a shopping spree in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy, Reuters reported. About 6.89 trillion baht ($221 billion) of outstanding Thai debt - or 42% of total lending - has been under relief programmes that include payment deferment and reduction, interest rate reduction and restructuring. The most significant of these - a government-mandated six month debt payment holiday - ended on Thursday.

The economic crisis brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak has hit state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the energy, transportation and infrastructure sectors, a top government official has said, The Jakarta Post reported. Deputy SOEs Minister Kartika “Tiko” Wirjoatmodjo said SOEs in the energy sector, such as electricity giant PLN and oil and gas company Pertamina, had suffered severe losses amid low demand during the health crisis.

Bad news for AirAsia X customers as they cannot claim any refunds or credits from the airline as it undergoes a restructuring process after being hit hard by the pandemic, The Rakyat Post reported. According to the AirAsia X support site, the airline has submitted an application for a debt restructuring to the High Court of Kuala Lumpur and customers have been listed as scheme creditors as part of that process. Additionally, credit account applications, flight changes and Unlimited Pass holders are also affected.

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) that are facing insolvency shouldn’t be subject to the same rules as other businesses, the Law Council of Australia said. The peak body of Australia’s legal profession said that Australia should move away from a one-size-fits-all approach under the Corporations Act of 2001, CRN reported. The Law Council said it was supporting Treasury’s draft exposure bill, which provides an alternative regime that allow SMBs to restructure, or transition to liquidation in a more cost-effective way.

The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) will spend three months monitoring the debt restructuring progress of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), on a case-by-case basis, after the Bank of Thailand's debt relief measures in the second phase expire tomorrow, the Bangkok Post reported. Though the central bank will not prolong debt relief measures, the regulator encourages financial institutions to help borrowers who cannot pay debt normally to enter debt restructuring.

Turkish banks suspended a plan to create an asset-management firm to take over their problematic debt in a bet that they’d be better off recovering some of the loans themselves rather than unloading them at a discount, Bloomberg News reported. Lenders are reluctant to sell non-performing loans for less than what they’re worth when they can restructure the borrowings and collect what is owed, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified because the matter is sensitive. The plan can be revived if there’s another economic shock, the people said.

There is much to admire in China’s recovery. Between the second and third quarters, its economy expanded by 4.9 per cent. It is unique among the world’s largest economies in that the IMF expects it to avoid a contraction this year, the Financial Times reported. That owes much to Beijing’s success in stamping out Covid-19, along with the country’s manufacturing prowess. Yet, digging into the numbers, the picture is not quite as rosy as it may seem. Long before the pandemic, the world’s second-largest economy looked dangerously unbalanced.