Asia

Turkey’s Treasury will issue 5-year debt instruments worth a total of 3.7 billion euros to strengthen the capital of state banks, it said on Monday. Last week, Turkish state-owned lenders Ziraat Bank and Vakifbank said they had completed pricing of perpetual bonds, which will be used to strengthen capital, while Kalkinma Bank and Eximbank authorised headquarters to seek loans to boost their capital, Reuters reported. After last year’s currency crisis - in which the lira shed around 30 percent of its value against the U.S.

China’s bond market is hosting a battle of wills between the country’s leadership and lower-ranking officials and corporate bosses, The Wall Street Journal reported. They are fighting over perpetual bonds, debtlike securities that lack a maturity date and technically never need to be repaid. Issuance has surged since the start of 2018, partly because state-backed companies see them as a way to hit Beijing-mandated debt-reduction targets without going through a painful restructuring or diluting government control.

Japanese prosecutors on Monday formally charged Carlos Ghosn, the former head of the Nissan-Renault auto alliance, with breach of trust, piling a new count of financial impropriety onto his existing charges in a move that adds pressure on him and ensures he remains jailed, the International New York Times reported. Mr. Ghosn, who continues to maintain he is innocent, has been in a detention center on the outskirts of Tokyo since April 4, when prosecutors swarmed into his apartment in an early morning raid.

Turkey’s central bank has bolstered its foreign currency reserves with billions of dollars of short-term borrowed money, raising fears among analysts and investors that the country is overstating its ability to defend itself in a fresh lira crisis, the Financial Times reported. Reported net foreign reserves held by the central bank stood at $28.1bn in early April — a sum that investors already believed was inadequate because of Turkey’s heavy need for dollars to cover debt and foreign trade.

Embattled Chinese conglomerate HNA Group has denied accusations of embezzlement and financial irregularity made by a rival group of shareholders in Hong Kong Airlines (HKA) as the two sides fight for control of the struggling carrier, Reuters reported. The allegations were made by Zhong Guosong and Frontier Investment Partner who between them control 61 percent of HKA’s shares. On Tuesday, they declared they had taken control of the carrier and made Zhong, a former HKA director, chairman after an extraordinary shareholder meeting.

Pakistan’s finance minister resigned on Thursday following widespread criticism over the country’s economic crisis and his handling of a bailout deal with the IMF, the Financial Times reported. Asad Umar’s departure comes amid frustration from business leaders and opposition politicians with Islamabad’s decision last year to turn to countries including Saudi Arabia and China for at least $7.2bn in short-term loans instead of securing an IMF bailout package.

Thousands of employees have been stung by the rapid unraveling of Jet Airways, which, saddled with more than $1.2 billion in bank debt, grounded all its planes on Wednesday after lenders rejected a plea for emergency funds, Reuters reported. The shutdown has deepened the crisis as dues to lessors, staff and suppliers pile up and lenders scramble to find a buyer for what was once India’s largest private airline. Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube told employees on Wednesday that the sale would take time and could throw up more challenges, but he was confident the airline would fly again.

China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co said it would reduce its registered capital by nearly one-third, the latest government-directed step of a massive restructuring of the debt-laden conglomerate to curb financial risks, Reuters reported. A state takeover work group, which has seized control of Anbang since February last year, has decided to trim the company’s registered capital to 41.5 billion yuan ($6.21 billion) from 61.9 billion yuan, pending approval from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, Anbang said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Turkey’s Halkbank will issue debt instruments and borrow in domestic and foreign markets to strengthen its capital base, which was left thinner after the lender provided low-interest loans in the wake of last year’s currency crisis, Reuters reported. The state-run bank said late on Tuesday it plans to issue debt instruments or borrow a total of 2 billion euros and 10 billion liras ($1.74 billion) in the Turkish market, while borrowing 2 billion euros or equivalent abroad, to meet its Additional Tier 1 (AT1) capital requirements.

The loan default in Hong Kong by HNA Group Co. unit CWT International Ltd. is causing tremors in Singapore, Bloomberg News reported. Listed real estate investment trusts in the city-state that count CWT as a tenant dropped on concerns there might also be missed rent payments. Shares of Cache Logistics Trust extended declines Wednesday to the lowest in more than a month. Mapletree Logistics Trust, meanwhile, is down 4.1 percent since Monday, on track for its biggest weekly decrease since February 2018. CWT’s Singapore business is among the top 10 tenants of both landlords.