Headlines

According to the Chinese business publication Caixin, the first of China's massive state-owned organizations has collapsed under the weight of $2.2 billion worth of bad debt in China's interbank bond market. The company, Guangxi Nonferrous Metals Group, filed for bankruptcy nine months ago but only got approval from the Chinese government to go bankrupt a few days ago. This is different from other Chinese bankruptcies. It's the first company in China's superliquid, over-the-counter interbank market to go bust.

Mainboard-listed Marco Polo Marine said on Thursday (Sept 22) there may be a "substantial doubt about the group's ability to continue as a going concern", The Straits Times reported. Its statement to the Singapore Exchange accompanied its launch of an exercise seeking consent from bond holders to delay repayment by three years of notes worth S$50 million that are due next month. Noteholders are asked to vote on the company's debt restructuring proposal at a meeting on Oct 14.

The South Korean court overseeing Hanjin Shipping's receivership said a rehabilitation plan is "realistically impossible" if top priority debt such as backlogged charter fees exceed 1 trillion won ($896 million), South Korea's Yonhap newswire reported on Wednesday. Hanjin Shipping, the world's seventh-largest container carrier, filed for receivership late last month in a South Korean court and must submit a rehabilitation plan in December.

Venezuela’s petroleum industry, whose vast revenues once fueled the country’s Socialist-inspired revolution, underwriting everything from housing to education, is spiraling into disarray, the International New York Times reported. To add insult to injury, the Venezuelan government has been forced to turn to its nemesis, the United States, for help.

A court in southern China has formally declared bankrupt Guangxi Nonferrous Metals Group Co Ltd, an unlisted state-run metals producer that defaulted on a bond in February and missed a payment in April, Reuters reported. The firm, which is owned by the Guangxi regional government, had failed to propose a court-ordered reorganization plan within a six month window, the intermediate court in Guangxi's capital Nanning ruled on Sept. 12 according to a statement posted online on Monday. As such, the restructuring period was brought to a close and the company was declared bankrupt, it said.

Shares in Takata fell 12 per cent on Tuesday as investors feared that a bankruptcy option could be part of the restructuring package being compiled for the Japanese manufacturer at the centre of a global safety scandal, the Financial Times reported. The sharp sell-off on Tuesday followed a report by Bloomberg that several bidders for Takata have not ruled out some form of bankruptcy proceedings to mitigate the liabilities.

China's listed property developers issued 960 billion yuan (110.8 billion pounds) in bonds as of Sept. 19, more than three times the amount in the same period last year, financial magazine Caixin reported, citing data from WIND, a Chinese financial data provider. "At this pace, there is no suspense that bond sales by property developers would reach over 1 trillion yuan ($149.91 billion) this year," the report said. The report attributed the rise to easier access, low interest rates, encouraging property policies and a lack of other investment channels.

Japan’s central bank is reviewing its economic policies, asking why they have failed to kick-start growth, as intended. Its much-anticipated report is due on Wednesday, the International New York Times reported. One target is negative interest rates — an unconventional tactic adopted in Japan and Europe that turns the usual rules of borrowing and lending upside down. What are negative interest rates? Negative interest rates mean depositors pay money to save their money, a reversal of the normal rules of economics. In this case, the depositors are banks.

All Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd chartered vessels that have completed unloading their cargo have been told to cancel their charter agreements and return the ships to the shipowners, a South Korean judge said on Monday. Hanjin, the world's seventh-largest container line, filed for receivership last month, leaving more than 100 ships and their cargo at sea and threatening to snarl U.S. freight traffic as the year-end shopping season approaches. Dozens of Hanjin's ships have been blocked from docking with ports and lashing firms fearing they won't be paid.

The Chinese coastal city of Tianjin plans to issue corporate bonds to ease the debt burden of a local state-owned steelmaker — in a flagship case of restructuring in the domestic industry, the Financial Times reported. Tianjin’s city government has finalised a plan to restructure the Rmb192bn ($28.6bn) debt of Bohai Steel Group by placing its most profitable assets into a new company and converting a portion of the liabilities into bonds, according to Caixin, a respected financial magazine.