Hong Kong risks a property bubble if home prices keep rising, said Peter Wong, HSBC Holdings Plc’s chief executive officer for the Asia-Pacific region, Bloomberg reported. The Hong Kong government is trying to curb 42 percent surge in home prices since the beginning of 2009 amid concern housing is out of reach of ordinary residents. Prices may rise 10 percent in the second half of this year if interest rates remain at two-decade lows and the local economy keeps growing, according to property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

Hong Kong bankruptcy petitions in April fell about 18 percent from March, but were down 48 percent from a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. Petitions totalled 770 in April, down from a high of 1,872 recorded in March 2009 when the economy was hit hard by the global financial crisis. Hong Kong pulled out of recession in the second quarter of last year. Hong Kong's economy expanded 8.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010, compared with the year-earlier period. The government has forecast GDP growth for Hong Kong of between 4 and 5 percent for 2010.

China’s biggest developers are borrowing record amounts in Hong Kong, taking advantage of lower interest rates to circumvent a lending crackdown at home, Bloomberg reported. While banks demand at least 5.2 percent in annual interest for three-to-five year money in mainland China, the cost of credit in Hong Kong dollars has fallen to the least since November 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. agreed to an HK$8 billion ($1.03 billion) loan in February that pays 1.45 percent at current market levels, the data show.

Hong Kong bankruptcy petitions in March rose 38.1 percent from February, but were down 50.1 percent from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. Petitions totalled 935 in March, down from a high of 1,872 a year earlier when the economy was hit hard by the global financial crisis. Hong Kong pulled out of recession in the second quarter of last year. The notice gave no explanation for the month-on-month increase. Read more.

American International Group Inc. is in talks to sell a Hong Kong life insurance division to Prudential Plc for more than $35 billion, marking AIG’s largest asset sale since U.S. taxpayers bailed out the company in 2008, people briefed on the matter said, Bloomberg reported. AIG and Prudential aim to reach an agreement to sell American International Assurance Co. in coming days, although the talks could always collapse, the people said, declining to be identified because the matter is private.

Strong results in a Hong Kong government land auction are the latest sign that the city's real-estate market is surging higher after a brief lull, as government officials here and elsewhere in the region grapple with how to cool off overheating property prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. On Monday, blue-chip developer Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. agreed to pay 3.37 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$434 million) bid for a 130,000-square-foot site in the suburbs of Hong Kong.

Russian aluminum giant UC Rusal is "very comfortable" with its debt levels and confident about meeting its debt-restructuring obligations, the company's deputy chief executive said. The executive, Artem Volynets, also said the company has no intention to sell off its 25% stake in OAO Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel company by production, The Wall Street Journal reported. Rusal, run by the oligarch Oleg Deripaska, is raising as much as US$2.59 billion through a share sale in Hong Kong marketed to professional and other select investors.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson Monday said he expects to restart construction on the casino operator's delayed resort projects in Macau in about five months, with the first two phases of the project to be completed by the end of 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported. Construction of the project was halted in November last year due to a lack of funding during the credit crunch. The new target underscores Sands' renewed ambitions in Macau, the world's biggest casino growth market and the only place in China where gambling is legal.

Nakheel PJSC creditors may win the right to seize a strip of barren waterfront land the size of Manhattan if the company defaults on the $3.5 billion bond backing the development, Bloomberg reported. Investors will be able to seek foreclosure on the property’s mortgages should the Dubai World unit fail to repay the loan, according to the bond’s prospectus. The debt is due on Dec. 14, after which Nakheel has two weeks to remedy a default. The property forms part of the Dubai Waterfront project, where Nakheel plans to build a city twice the size of Hong Kong Island.

Kangaroo Island Abalone has received a State Government grant of $270,000 to upgrade electricity infrastructure at its east farm, The KI Islander reported. The farm has been run solely on diesel generated power since 2005 and general manager Justin Harman said the new infrastructure could halve the company’s annual diesel fuel bill for that farm. The company spends about $250,000 a year on diesel. The innovative new system will connect the farm to the main electricity grid but have the capacity to disconnect it when the load reaches network limit on Kangaroo Island.