Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd., which last year became the first Chinese real estate developer to default on dollar bonds, is seeking to use U.S. bankruptcy law to help its debt reorganization in a Hong Kong court, Bloomberg News reported. The Shenzhen, China-based company filed a Chapter 15 petition in Manhattan court Thursday. Companies use that provision of U.S. bankruptcy law to deal with U.S. creditors or lawsuits when reorganizing in another country.

McAleese has started exclusive negotiations with Hong Kong-based hedge fund SC Lowy over a financial restructuring and extended its trading suspension for another month, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The troubled transport group received three indicative proposals from financial groups prepared to help fund a debt restructure, but has given SC Lowy exclusive negotiating rights until April 15. McAleese' net debt rose to $188 million in the six months to December compared with $170.5 million a year earlier and the company has a "current asset deficiency" of $163.2 million.

Mongolian Mining Corp. didn’t make principal and interest payments on a $200 million loan facility and wasn’t able to get a temporary waiver from banks, triggering a cross-default on its bonds, Bloomberg News reported. The miner failed to make the payments on the loan facility taken from BNP Paribas SA and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. in March 2014, and didn’t get a waiver from the lenders, according to a stock exchange filing. The situation constitutes a cross-default event in the terms of other indebtedness including its $600 million of 8.875 percent notes, it said.

Overseas loans by banks in Hong Kong fell significantly for the first time in more than four years in August, the month China surprised the world by devaluing its currency and effectively making loans at home much cheaper, The Wall Street Journal reported. Chinese borrowing accounts for a large portion of overseas lending by banks in the city, including foreign lenders. Overseas loans soared in the years when the yuan was rising and interest rates on the mainland were higher than those in Hong Kong. But in August such loans fell sharply. Because of its peg to the U.S.

For Hong Kong, it's been one thing after another. A series of anti-China and pro-democracy protests last year prompted stores to close and mainland tour groups to cancel bookings. Meanwhile, a slowing Chinese economy and President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption and austerity campaigns have also made the Chinese more wary of buying pricey cognac and Gucci bags in the city. While still the biggest outbound destination for Chinese tour groups, Hong Kong is in danger of losing its lead.

With Hong Kong riven by political deadlock, politicians and investors have repeatedly warned in recent years that the financial centre risks sliding into irrelevance as its Chinese rivals Shanghai and Shenzhen go from strength to strength, the Financial Times reported. But some argue that China’s latest bout of stock market turmoil — and Beijing’s panicked response — has provided an unexpected boon to Hong Kong, highlighting the open nature of its financial markets and its more robust regulatory system.

Corporate insolvency is expected to rise this year in the mainland and Hong Kong, with an increasing number of companies struggling to protect margins from late payments by customers, the South China Morning Post reported. Even as the economy continues to grow at a relatively good pace, mainland firms are grappling with a state-driven shift in economic structure. This would inevitably lead to shrinking business opportunities in sectors such as construction, cement and steel, pushing up defaults in these areas, said Dutch trade credit insurer Atradius.

The government's student loan scheme is open to exploitation, the Ombudsman said, highlighting 13,000 default cases recorded over the past three years involving at its peak HK$200 million in unpaid debts, the South China Morning Post reported. Over half of the unpaid debts came from the extended non-means-tested loan scheme, which offers loans at lower-than-market rates - mostly to the working population to enrol in part-time courses.

Eighty-six years old and still job hunting. Wong Siu-ying had to stop passing out leaflets on a Hong Kong flyover when she hurt her knee in August. With two-thirds of her social security income spent on rent and no steady allowance from her three children, retirement isn’t an option, the Irish Times reported. “It isn’t enough,” Wong said of the roughly HK$2,200 ($284) a month she gets from the government, which provides a benefit to the elderly as a supplementary income, with the expectation families will pay for living expenses.

A surge in business loans to the slowing mainland Chinese economy has prompted Hong Kong regulators to impose strict financial rules four years before they are required under new global standards, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. The move is aimed at discouraging banks in Hong Kong from raising money by relying too heavily on short-term funds that can evaporate during periods of tumult. But big global banks have been resisting, over fears that the rules will cut into their profit by driving up loan costs.