Asia

Canadian aerospace company Bombardier has announced the sale of its regional jet program to Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. for $550 million, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. The company is seeking to exit the commercial plane market and focus on business jets and its large rail segment. Bombardier chief executive Alain Bellemare said Tuesday the sale signifies the completion of the transformation of its aerospace business.

Indian mortgage lender Dewan Housing Finance Corp Ltd (DHFL) said it had only been able to make a 40 percent payment on unsecured commercial papers due on Tuesday, but vowed to pay the remaining 2.25 billion rupees ($32.49 million) in the coming days, Reuters reported. India’s shadow banking sector has been thrown into disarray after a series of defaults at large lender Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services last year triggered fears about contagion in the financial sector.

A rare public default at a Chinese trust company is drawing attention to cracks in the Rmb7.9tn ($1.13tn) market for the investment products in the country, where similar failures have been dealt with behind the scenes in the past, the Financial Times reported. Anxin Trust, which missed payments on Rmb11.8bn for 25 trust products earlier this year, has been forced to publicly document its default because, unlike most trusts, it is listed on the Shanghai stock exchange.

Japan’s financial regulator is warming to a junk bond market. Debate has been heating up in the country about junk bonds after the first such publicly offered note in the nation priced last month by Aiful Corp., a consumer lender that teetered on the verge of bankruptcy a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. With negative rates persisting into a fourth year and showing no sign of abating, investors are increasingly under pressure to take on more risk to secure returns.

One of the most opaque areas of China’s credit markets involves the practice of companies buying their own bonds, Bloomberg News reported. That may soon get a lot tougher, contributing to financing difficulties that are already bedeviling the nation’s policy makers. At issue is a sharp increase in scrutiny by financial institutions of the collateral that their counterparties offer up in the repurchase market, a crucial channel for short-term funding.

Banks have just about a couple of weeks to decide the fate of more than 150 borrowers, which include sugarmaker Bajaj Hindusthan, energy companies RattanIndia Power and Suzlon and other infrastructure and road builders as the 30-day review period for these loans ends on July 7, The Economic Times reported.

The eurozone’s anemic growth and inflation mean it’s probably already experiencing its own “Japanification,” and escape could prove hard if the Asian nation’s track record is any guide, according to ING Group, The Japan Times reported. Europe’s situation has long left it open to comparisons with Japan in the 1990s. In a report Monday, ING lists similarities including an increase in government debt, a buildup of bad loans at banks, an aging population and huge monetary policy loosening.

India's National Company Law Tribunal is pushing for the corporate insolvency resolution process for Jet Airways to be fast-tracked, citing the national importance of the matter, FlightGlobal reported. An order from the Mumbai bench of the court appointed Ashish Chhawchharia from Grant Thornton as the interim resolution professional (IRP) and declared a moratorium on any action be creditors to recover assets or lodge legal action against Jet. That moratorium will run until the completion of the insolvency process, the court approves a resolution plan, or a liquidation is ordered.

Realty developer Rustomjee Group has emerged as the sole bidder for Ariisto Developers, one of the first Mumbai based builders to be admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for undertaking insolvency proceedings, said persons with direct knowledge of the development, the Economic Times reported. Total claims of lenders and other stakeholders, including lenders and operational creditors, stand at ₹2,500 crore.

India’s bankruptcy court, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), on Thursday accepted an insolvency petition against Jet Airways Ltd filed by its creditors as they attempt to recover some of their dues, Reuters reported. The insolvency process will allow lenders to sell the company as a whole or in parts, laying out a fixed timeline for a resolution around its future. Jet Airways, once India’s biggest private carrier, stopped flying in April after running out of cash, leaving thousands without jobs and pushing up air fares across the country.