Hong Kong

Bulgarian telecoms operator Vivacom obtained UK court approval to proceed with a 1.7 billion euro ($2.1 billion) debt restructuring, ending two years of wrangling with lenders and failed attempts to sell the company, Reuters reported. Under a deal approved by Mr Justice Vos in a hearing at the High Court in London, Russia's second-biggest bank VTB Capital and Bulgaria's Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB) are buying over 70 percent of Vivacom and existing lenders are writing off 1 billion euros of debts.

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd has made a revised 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) bid for eircom, the Irish phone company granted court protection from creditors six weeks ago, according to sources familiar with the deal. Hutchison, the parent company of 3 Mobile, amended its offer after the court-appointed examiner overseeing Eircom's reorganization rejected an initial bid over the conditionality attached to it, Reuters reported. A tweaked bid, with some technical adjustments and no conditions, has been resubmitted, but it is still subject to due diligence said a source.

Hong Kong is bracing for more finance-sector job cuts as Western banks, many of which base their regional operations in this business hub, scale back their Asian expansion amid the fallout from Europe's debt crisis and a generally weaker global economy, The Wall Street Journal reported.

China's property prices fell for the fourth straight month in December, adding further pressure on Chinese consumers at a time when both the domestic and global economy increasingly depend on their spending, The Wall Street Journal reported. The property slump has triggered a slowdown in sales growth of goods ranging from furniture to refrigerators. Investment in residential real estate accounts for about 12% of China's economy, but as much as 25% is tied up in a broader category that also includes industries such as construction materials and appliances, according to economists.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said it settled $20 billion of intercompany claims with liquidators for Lehman Hong Kong and won the affiliate’s support for its liquidation plan, Bloomberg reported. Details of the agreement, which is subject to court approval in the U.S. and Hong Kong, weren’t provided in Lehman’s statement today. Edward Middleton, a partner at KPMG China and one of the Hong Kong liquidators, said in the statement that the settlement will benefit creditors by speeding liquidations.

Hong Kong-based Grande Holdings Ltd., which owns such global consumer electronic brands as Nakamichi, Akai and Sansui, is seeking court protection from its U.S. creditors, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Grande reported assets and debts each in the range of $100 million to $500 million in the Chapter 15 bankruptcy petition it filed Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, court papers show.

Hong Kong bankruptcy petitions rose 16.2 percent in May from the previous month to 718, but were down 9.5 percent from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The number of bankruptcy petitions totalled 3,375 for the first five months of 2011, down 15.4 percent from a year earlier. Bankruptcy orders totalled 3,356 for January-May, down 14.8 percent from a year earlier. Data on Thursday showed unemployment at 3.5 percent in March-May 2011.

Hong Kong banks may have succeeded where the government failed as rising mortgage rates curb home price gains and cut sales to the lowest level in two years, signaling the property market may have peaked, Bloomberg reported. HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), which controls two of the city’s three- biggest banks by customers, is among lenders that accelerated mortgage rate increases in April as liquidity dried up.

The first yuan-denominated share to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange is laying the groundwork for a "seismic change" when China allows its citizens to invest abroad more freely, the exchange's head said. In an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal, Charles Li, chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., said exchange officials are preparing for much greater outbound investment from China that would drive demand for yuan-linked products in Hong Kong.

Sixteen Hong Kong banks have agreed on a deal to enable investors in structured products of the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers recover a majority of their investments, Reuters reported. Investors in Hong Kong lost nearly $2.5 billion on structured products, called 'minibonds' offered by U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, which collapsed in 2008. A statement from receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers on Sunday said the agreement was to result in most of Lehman's minibond investors recovering over 80 percent of their original investment from the underlying collateral.