Hong Kong

Bankruptcy petitions in Hong Kong accelerated in June, surging 89 percent from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, contrasting with other data suggesting the economy may be bottoming out, Reuters reported. Petitions also rose on a monthly basis after declining for the previous two months. Bankruptcy petitions totalled 1,619 last month, up from 857 a year ago and rising 14 percent from 1,417 in May, although monthly figures are not seasonally adjusted. The annual pace of increase was much faster than in May when petitions rose 54 percent from a year earlier.

Bankruptcy petitions in Hong Kong in May jumped 54 percent from a year earlier, totalling 1,417, as the territory continued to struggle with economic recession, but they fell on a monthly basis for a second straight month, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. Bankruptcies in April totalled 1,490, up 56 percent from a year earlier. The number of bankruptcies in May was the lowest since January and marked only the third time since August that bankruptcy petitions, which give an indication of future bankruptcies, had fallen from the previous month.

Li & Fung Ltd., which supplies retailers worldwide, declined in Hong Kong trading after client Arcandor AG, a German department-store operator, filed for insolvency, Bloomberg reported. Arcandor contributes about 5 percent, or $700 million, of Li & Fung’s sales, Managing Director William Fung said today. The Hong Kong company that’s the biggest supplier of clothes and toys to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. said today it’s owed $5.4 million by Arcandor.

Court-appointed administrators overseeing Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s global bankruptcy proceedings have signed a multilateral agreement allowing them to share information and coordinate the insolvency process as the financial services firm wends its way through more than 75 distinct bankruptcy filings, Bankruptcy Law360 reported.

Bankruptcy petitions in Hong Kong in April jumped 56 percent from a year earlier, totalling 1,490, as the territory struggled with economic recession, although that was lowest monthly total since January, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. March bankruptcies totalled 1,872, a six-year high, while bankruptcies in April a year ago amounted to 957. The latest data marked only the second time since August that bankruptcy petitions, which give an indication of future bankruptcies, had fallen from the previous month.

Bank of America Corp., seeking to bolster its financial standing in the face of new government requirements, raised $7.3 billion from Asian investors Tuesday through the sale of a roughly 5.7% stake in China Construction Bank Corp., according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. For the U.S. lender, the move marks a significant step to raising $34 billion in capital needed to meet the requirements of a new U.S. government stress test for lenders.

Bankruptcy petitions in Hong Kong rose to a more than five-year high in March as the recession in the city deepened, government data showed Friday. The government said individuals and non-limited companies filed 1,872 bankruptcy petitions during the month, up from 1,500 in February, Dow Jones Newswires reported. March's figure was the highest since July 2003, when 1,899 bankruptcy petitions were filed as Hong Kong was recovering from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome crisis. The data come amid signs of a further deterioration in local economic conditions.

All around Asia, leveraged finance professionals are reinventing themselves as restructuring specialists, a survival strategy amid layoffs and a slowed pipeline of splashy public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, The Wall Street Journal reported. Investment banks and law firms here also are rushing to put together teams for dealing with what bankers are predicting will be a wave of business in the region in the second half of this year. In the U.S. and Europe, bankruptcy and restructuring specialists tend to focus on those situations for entire careers.

Larry Yung quit as chairman of Citic Pacific Ltd. after the biggest currency loss reported by a Chinese company triggered a police investigation, Bloomberg reported. Yung, the son of a former Chinese vice president, will be replaced by Chang Zhenming, 52, the vice chairman of parent Citic Group, Citic Pacific said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange today. The 67-year-old executive, ranked the nation’s richest man in 2005, is leaving after currency losses of HK$14.6 billion ($1.9 billion) forced him to seek help from Beijing.

Invista Real Estate, the UK's largest listed property fund manager, is poised to buy the Asian property business of Babcock & Brown, the Australian investment house that was placed into voluntary administration last month, the Financial Times reported. Invista, which is majority owned by HBOS, is to acquire Babcock & Brown's fund management platform in the region, including offices in Hong Kong and Singapore and more than 20 staff.