Headlines

Japanese corporate bankruptcies fell in 2014 to the lowest level since the final year of Japan’s asset bubble, as a government request for banks to alter loan conditions for smaller firms helped companies stay afloat, Bloomberb News reported. Business failures slid 10.4 percent in 2014 from a year earlier to 9,731 cases, the fewest since 1990, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. said in Tokyo today. There were no bankruptcies among listed firms last year for the first time in 24 years.

Australians are experiencing fewer financial crises, new personal insolvency statistics have revealed, The Adviser reported. There were 6,888 personal insolvency incidents in the December 2014 quarter, according to the Australian Financial Security Authority. That marked an 8.1 per cent decline on the December 2013 quarter. Debt agreements climbed 2.5 per cent to 2,655, with South Australia and the Northern Territory reaching all-time highs.

The highly critical judgment in the bankruptcy trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has been passed to the office of the US Trustee, which can refer the judge’s findings to the department of justice and recommend criminal charges on perjury and fraud, the Irish Times reported.

While Australia’s commodities boom was running hot, it wasn’t only mining companies that benefited from the billions of dollars in investment pouring into the country. Airlines got a boost, too, The Wall Street Journal reported. That has changed as slumping commodity prices and reduced investment prompt fewer builders and pit-workers to travel to remote mine sites. The result: several operators of smaller aircraft, such as lightweight jets and turboprops, are going bust, while others are warning of a severe hit to profits.

Uncertainty over the law, inexperienced judges and a total lack of precedent have made bankruptcy in Cambodia a decidedly worrisome proposition, The Phnom Penh Post reported. Two years ago yesterday, on January 9, 2013, telecommunications operator MFone filed for insolvency in the Phnom Penh courts. The failure of the company, which had run up too much debt and could no longer compete in the crowded telco sector, left more than 1,000 workers jobless - many of whom hit the streets in protest.

Cyprus has suspended operations at its flag carrier after the European Commission ordered the struggling airline to pay back over 65 million euros in illegal state aid, Reuters reported. The last Cyprus Airways flight will take place Friday night, government officials said. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Cyprus Airways had no chance of becoming viable without continued state subsidies, meaning money paid out in 2012 and 2013 as part of a restructuring package would have to be recovered. The restructuring plan was "based on unrealistic assumptions" the EU Commission said.

Victims of the Lac-Megantic oil-by-rail disaster that killed 47 people in the Canadian province of Quebec in 2013 agreed to a nearly $200 million settlement with some of the firms involved, including the insolvent rail operator at the center of the tragedy, a lawyer for the victims said on Friday. Montreal Maine and Atlantic (MMA), along with its insurers, founder Edward Burkhardt, and various other companies, will pay into the settlement fund, which will be distributed to the victims of the train derailment and explosion, lawyer Peter Flowers of Meyers & Flowers in Chicago told Reuters.

OAS SA, the Brazilian builder that skipped bond payments this month as it tries to restructure debt, is seeking a 2 billion-real ($760 million) loan that would be repaid with proceeds from asset sales, three people with knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg News reported. The loan would be backed by OAS’s stake in Invepar, an airport and toll-road operator, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Other assets might also be pledged as collateral. The Sao Paulo-based company, which has a stake of 24.4 percent in Invepar, said Jan.

One of Zimbabwe's smaller banks, owned by a senior minister in President Robert Mugabe's government, has surrendered its licence because it was insolvent and had a high level of non-performing loans, two sources at the bank said on Thursday. Unlisted Allied Bank, majority-owned by Transport Minister Obert Mpofu, has been struggling to meet capitalisation requirements and volunteered to close.

Limitless, a Dubai government-related real estate developer, has asked for a three-month extension to talks with creditors after failing to secure a new restructuring deal on its $1.2 billion debt pile, four banking sources told Reuters on Thursday. The company, which has already restructured the debt once before after falling victim to the emirate's property crash at the end of the last decade, has been in talks with creditors for nearly a year on a new deal. It had hoped to secure new terms before a $400 million payment came due on Dec. 31 but no deal was reached.