Debtwire’s 2Q26 APAC Restructuring Advisory Mandates Report shows the number of mandates awarded to restructuring and insolvency professionals across Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) increased quarter-over-quarter in 2Q26, driven largely by a surge in appointments from Australia. China nevertheless remained the region’s largest source of mandates and accounted for most mandated debt.

A total of 35 new mandates were awarded in the region during 2Q26, involving USD 28.71bn of debt, compared with 30 mandates involving USD 39.45bn in 1Q26. Despite the quarterly increase, activity remained well below recent years. The 65 mandates awarded across 32 situations in 1H26 represented a 30.1% decline from 1H25 and a 51.5% decrease from 1H24. These situations involved USD 67.39bn of debt.

Australia

In 2Q26, Australia accounted for 13 new mandates, or 37.1% of the regional total, compared with four in 1Q26. The increase was largely driven by mining company Ravenswood Gold, which generated nine new mandates. The miner secured approximately USD 1bn in June 2026 to refinance defaulted financial liabilities. In April 2026, the miner missed an AUD 40m payment under its gold forward contracts with banks amid a dispute between its two shareholders.

The other Australian situations with new mandates in 2Q26 involved renewable energy retailer Zen Energy and real estate developer Milligan Group (now known as ACN 157 854 807).

Despite accounting for more than a third of new mandates in 2Q26, the three Australian situations involved only USD 1.6bn of debt combined, or 5.6% of the regional total, highlighting the difference between Australia’s contribution to mandate volume and its limited impact on regional mandated debt.

Mainland China

China continued to lead the region by both mandate count and mandated debt. Despite a 22.7% QoQ decline, the country accounted for 17 new mandates in 2Q26, or almost half of the regional total. Its position was underpinned by the return of real estate developers CIFI Holdings (Group), Shimao Group Holdings and Yuzhou Group Holdings, all of which completed debt-restructuring processes during the second half of 2025.

Chinese real estate companies contributed nine new mandates across five situations during the quarter, involving USD 23.38bn of debt, or 81.4% of the regional total. Other than the three developers above, China Aoyuan Group – which completed parallel debt restructuring schemes of arrangement in March 2024 – also appointed advisors in 2Q26 to explore a potential second-round offshore-debt restructuring. With CNY 73.62bn (USD 10.78bn) of debt, Aoyuan was the largest situation by mandated debt in 2Q26.

The remaining Chinese real estate situation was Dasin Retail Trust. The Singapore-listed, China-focused trust, which confirmed for the first time in its 2022 annual report that it had defaulted on loan facilities, entered into judicial management in March 2026 following a court order.

In 1H26, China accounted for 39 new mandates (60% of regional total), involving USD 63.2bn of debt (93.8%).

Legacy situations*

Five of the 16 situations tracked in 2Q26 were legacy situations, accounting for six mandates involving USD 2.21bn of debt. These included Dasin Retail Trust, Milligan Group, Chinese pet healthcare service provider New Ruipeng Pet Group, and India’s education technology company Educomp Solutions and property developer Parsvnath Developers.

*Debtwire defines legacy situations as situations in which there has been a mandate or a known event of default prior to the quarter.

Top Advisors

KPMG and AlixPartners tied for the most financial advisory mandates in 2Q26, with two appointments each. KPMG was appointed as administrator over Milligan Group and financial advisor to Aoyuan, while AlixPartners was engaged as a safe harbour advisor to Ravenswood Gold, and receiver over Shimao’s hotel assets in Tung Chung, Hong Kong.

KPMG also topped the financial advisor ranking by mandated debt, advising on USD 11.12bn of debt, followed by Houlihan Lokey with USD 6.44bn through its sole mandate in the quarter, acting as a company-side advisor for CIFI.

For 1H26, Deloitte ranked first with four mandates involving USD 6.69bn of debt, followed by KPMG, Alvarez & Marsal, PwC, AlixPartners and FTI Consulting with two mandates each.

Kirkland & Ellis won the most legal mandates in 2Q26, with six appointments involving USD 1.37bn of debt. Linklaters and Latham & Watkins followed with two mandates each.

By mandated debt, however, Linklaters ranked first with more than USD 17bn of debt tied to its engagements for Aoyuan and CIFI.

For 1H26, K&E also led the legal advisor ranking, with seven mandates, followed by Linklaters with three.

Debtwire’s Restructuring Database covers APAC (ex-Japan) restructuring/liquidation situations involving debtors with debt in excess of USD 100m and starts tracking these situations when 1) the debtor engages a restructuring advisor, and/or 2) a restructuring/liquidation process is officially launched. If you would like to submit mandates, please email [email protected].