A bad bank in India that’s expected to launch this month may help reduce one of the world’s worst bad-loan piles but market participants say it’s a long path ahead, Bloomberg News reported. The new institution, which is set to start operations by the end of June, is likely to handle stressed debt worth 2 trillion rupees ($27 billion) over time, according to a BloombergQuint report. That would be about a quarter of the nation’s non-performing debt load.
SsangYong Motor's painful restructuring plan is raising the possibility that the ailing South Korean vehicle manufacturer may woo potential investors, the Korea Times reported. Early this month, its union and management reached an agreement to apply cost-cutting measures such as initiating unpaid leave and additional wage cuts for executive-level employees.
China has asked one of its biggest state-owned conglomerates to examine the finances of China Huarong Asset Management Co., adding a new twist to the drama that has roiled the world’s second-largest credit market for months, Bloomberg News reported. Citic Group, whose businesses span everything from banking to securities and mining, recently dispatched a team to Huarong to pore over the embattled distressed-debt manager’s books. It couldn’t immediately be determined what, if anything, might result from Citic Group’s involvement.
China’s central bank increased its short-term cash injection for the first time since March as it moved to soothe market concerns about liquidity conditions ahead of the quarter-end, Reuters reported. The injection of 30 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) marked an end to the People’s Bank of China’s practice of adding 10 billion yuan each trading day for the past three months. The move bodes well for liquidity prospects in the second half, as some 4.15 trillion yuan of medium-term policy loans will mature by December.
Thailand’s central bank held its benchmark rate unchanged on Wednesday, signaling a need to preserve policy space as the country grapples with its biggest wave of Covid cases and a weakening outlook for the tourism-reliant economy, Bloomberg News reported. The Bank of Thailand’s rate setting committee unanimously decided to hold rates at a record low of 0.5% for a ninth straight meeting, as expected by all 25 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The committee “stands ready to use limited policy space at the most-effective timing,” Bank of Thailand Assistant Governor Titanun Mallikamas said.
