Singapore

According to a recent study conducted by Asian Banker Research, Malaysia is listed fourth in the Asia Pacific region's most creditor-friendly bankruptcy regimes where creditors can expect to recover more than 80 cents in the dollar of assets they are owed, the Malaysian national news agency reported. The findings of the study released today said Singapore and Japan were Asia Pacific region's most creditor-friendly bankruptcy regimes where creditors could expect to recover more than 90 cents in the dollar. Taiwan came third with a similar rate of recovery with Malaysia.

Singapore Tin Industries (STI)’s facilities in Singapore are being sold off amid what appear to be tensions between the shareholders in the company, which is in receivership, MetalBulletin reported. In a statement, China’s Yunnan Tin Co (YTC), the 42% owner of STI, said the firm had been “running improperly” and that there had been “problems with foreign shareholders”. Sources told MB that YTC was not aware that the Singapore assets were being sold off until tender documents were made public.

Factories in China and India joined much of Europe in slashing output and jobs at a record pace in December, another sign the biggest emerging markets were wilting under the recession gripping industrialized nations, Reuters reported. Economists and policymakers had seen China, Russia, India and Brazil, with their vast markets and rising wealth, as the engines of growth that could save the world from recession. Those hopes are fading fast and forecasts are getting gloomier.

Despite assurances from the developer, Singapore is looking for ways to avoid ending up with a mammoth unfinished project on a prominent piece of land if U.S. casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp. is unable to complete a $4.9 billion gaming venture, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Sands said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week that it was in danger of not meeting obligations to its lenders on a $3.8 billion portion of its debt unless it raises capital, cuts spending on developments or increases its Las Vegas earnings by year end.

Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran said Singapore's government won't bail out the casino-resort being built by Las Vegas Sands Corp. in the city-state's downtown, Bloomberg reported today. The success of Las Vegas Sands’ project is crucial for the city-state, which is counting on two casino-resorts to help double visitor arrivals and triple tourism spending by 2015. The Las Vegas casino operator said yesterday it will get a $525 million investment from the family of CEO Sheldon Adelson and plans to sell $1.62 billion more in shares to raise cash and avoid bankruptcy.

Las Vegas Sands, owned by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, said it remained "committed" to its $4 billion Singapore casino project and that the city-state approved its proposal for as many as 1,000 gaming tables, the International Herald Tribune reported yesterday. The company met Singapore government officials last week to discuss completing the project, the Sands said Friday. Las Vegas Sands, which may be short of cash for $16 billion of projects in Asia, has no problems with its borrowings in Singapore, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and DBS Group, said last week. The Sands told the U.S.

US gaming firm Las Vegas Sands intends to finish a casino project it is building in Singapore and there are no indications it will default on loans, lender DBS Group said Friday. DBS is one of 40 banks that formed a syndicate to fund the Marina Bay Sands casino development, which is estimated to cost more than four billion US dollars, Agence France-Presse reported today. DBS’s comments followed a filing by Las Vegas Sands on Thursday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in which it sounded out a warning about its financial situation.