Headlines

Korea's financial regulator said Thursday it will step up moves to revamp the procedures for the corporate restructuring system in a bid to prevent moral hazard often incurred by company owners, The Korea Times reported. Under the envisioned plan, the regulator will strengthen creditors' rights by giving them more power to engage in the process of court receivership and debt workouts, according to the Financial Services Commission (FSC).

French engineering group Geci International's Sky Aircraft unit was placed under creditor protection on Thursday, giving it six months to find partners to save the project, Reuters reported. Geci said following the ruling by the commercial court at Briey in eastern France it would use the time to pursue all the options it was exploring to safeguard the future of the Skylander light aircraft. "Management and the company are mobilised to seek financing solutions and to assure a future for the Skylander programme as well as all its staff," Geci said in a statement.

Alarming data at a number of savings banks suggest that the country has yet to entirely deal with its secondary banking crisis. But after suspending the businesses of 20 savings banks in the past two years over concerns of financial implosion, regulators appear to be backtracking from their commitment to purge the sector as Koreans prepare to elect a new president in December, The Korea Times reported.

British clean technology firm Ceres Power Holdings Plc said it has not been able to secure the funds it needs to run its operations and that it would continue to explore options, including a wind down of the business, Reuters reported. Ceres said the other options it was looking at included a sale of the business or cancellation of its listing. The company has faced repeated delays related to the launch of its combined heat and power (CHP) energy efficient boiler as a result of technical issues with the product.

Two Spanish investment firms that own 31 percent of French property company Gecina have filed one of the biggest bankruptcy actions in Spanish history after a bank refused to refinance a 1.6 billion euro ($2.1 billion) loan, Reuters reported. The potential bankruptcy is the latest chapter in Spain's debt saga since its 2008 real estate crash, which forced banks to write billions of euros off property investments.

Senior executives from Spain’s second-biggest bank, BBVA, met National Asset Management Agency officials yesterday as the Spanish authorities announced further details of a “bad bank” to purge toxic loans from its lenders, the Irish Times reported. Spanish bankers and government officials have been studying the Irish “bad bank” model as Madrid sets up a vehicle to acquire toxic real-estate loans and repossessed properties from the banks.

Vitro SAB, the Mexican glassmaker seeking to salvage its restructuring, urged an appeals court to enforce its bankruptcy plan in the U.S. over opposition from hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. and other creditors, Bloomberg reported. Vitro is facing “legal chaos” with a bankruptcy plan that’s valid in Mexico and unenforceable in the U.S., Vitro attorney Andrew Leblanc told the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans today. “Vitro would be crippled in the United States” if a bankruptcy judge’s decision that denied enforcement of the plan in the U.S. is upheld, Leblanc said.

Indonesia's PT Berlian Laju Tanker , the world's third-largest chemical shipper, hopes to restructure its $1.9 billion debt by the year-end and will switch its focus to niche liquid chemical and gas transport, its founder and chairman said in a rare media interview, The Chicago Tribune reported on a Reuters story. The country's leading oil and gas shipper defaulted on several debt instruments earlier this year and has been talking to creditors about restructuring its operations and finances.

Belize and its creditors are negotiating a debt restructuring proposal, according to a statement posted to the website of the country's central bank, Dow Jones reported. Belize defaulted in September, a month after it failed to make a payment on its $548.3 million debt. The government and its creditors have been negotiating for several weeks, but the statement, posted Tuesday, was the first public sign of progress. "I think at this point they're getting ready to formalize an offer," said Edward Al-Hussainy, an analyst at Moody's Investors Services.

Kazakh bank BTA has agreed a preliminary term sheet with creditors to restructure $11.2 billion of debt, the bank said on Wednesday, triggering a rally in its heavily-discounted bonds. Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, the bank's majority shareholder, agreed to convert its deposits into equity and issue a $1.592 billion interest-bearing subordinated loan, Reuters reported. Creditors will exchange their interests for a package of new notes and cash, BTA said in a statement.