Asia

An Indian bankruptcy court ruled Jet Airways India Ltd. can resume operations under a new owner more than two years after it collapsed, according to Ashish Chhawchharia, the court-appointed professional running the carrier’s insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. Jet Airways, once India’s biggest private carrier, fell into bankruptcy in 2019 under mounting debts. Dubai-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan and Kalrock Capital Management Ltd.

Three Vietnamese banks have pledged to lend 4 trillion dong ($173.8 million) to Vietnam Airlines to help the troubled flag carrier weather the impact of the pandemic and avoid bankruptcy, state media reported on Monday, according to Reuters. Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Saigon - Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank and SeABank would make the interest-free loans this month and early next month, the Lao Dong newspaper cited the central bank as saying.

Future cooperation between Canadian miner Centerra Gold Inc. and Kyrgyzstan’s government in operating a gold mine in the Central Asian nation is unlikely, according to the nation’s finance minister, Bloomberg News reported. The government took over Kumtor mine late last month, using environmental concerns and tax issues to justify the move. It is now the subject of international arbitration initiated by Toronto-based Centerra, while the mine’s operating company Kumtor Gold filed for chapter 11 protection in New York on May 31.

China's central bank said on Monday it had recently summoned some banks and payment firms, including China Construction Bank and Alipay, urging them to crack down harder on cryptocurrency trading, Reuters reported. The People's Bank of China's meeting came after China's State Council, or cabinet, last month said that it would tighten restrictions on bitcoin trading and mining. Beijing has sharply ratcheted up its campaign in the last few weeks.

Philippine Airlines Inc.’s parent company posted a record loss last year, reflecting the “extraordinary” impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the carrier, Bloomberg News reported. PAL Holdings Inc. reported a 71.8 billion pesos ($1.48 billion) loss in calender 2020, compared to a 10.3 billion peso shortfall the year before, the company said in a stock exchange filing Thursday. In the first quarter of this year, its loss narrowed to 8.6 billion pesos from 9.4 billion pesos a year earlier.

Troubled flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia put off the payment on its Islamic debt once again, highlighting its financing crunch as the firm tries to avoid bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The Southeast Asian airline, struggling as the pandemic depresses air travel worldwide, said it “will continue to defer the periodic distribution amount due June 3,” in a filing to the Singapore stock exchange on Thursday. The state-owned company missed the distribution payment on a $500 million sukuk on June 3, and a 14-day grace period ended on Thursday.

EAGLE Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (EH-Reit), which is part of Singapore-based Eagle Hospitality Trust (EHT), has received net proceeds of about U.S. $153.9 million following the sale of five chapter 11 properties, the Singapore Business Times reported. The net proceeds have been partially used to repay the debtor-in-possession facility and the stalking horse "break up" fee, EH-Reit trustee DBS Trustee said in a bourse filing on Thursday. The balance remaining is around $109.7 million, which will go to repaying ongoing post-petition expenses and pre-petition creditors.

Japan cleared the way for holding the Summer Olympics on schedule by setting an end to its state of emergency and lifting vaccinations to about a million shots a day, the Wall Street Journal reported. Thursday’s developments, combined with falling Covid-19 infection numbers and rising public support for the Games, make it highly likely that the Olympics will start in Tokyo on July 23 as scheduled, barring a last-minute surprise such as a renewed coronavirus wave.

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed further restrictions on purchases of telecommunications equipment that pose national security risks, strengthening its opposition to Chinese providers of 5G wireless and other technologies, the New York Times reported. The F.C.C. voted unanimously to explore the proposal to ban U.S. companies from all future purchases of telecommunications equipment from companies like Huawei and ZTE of China.