Australia overtook China as the largest source of new restructuring and insolvency mandates in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) in 3Q26, as China’s mandate count fell by more than half quarter-on-quarter, according to Debtwire’s 3Q26 APAC Advisory Mandates Report.

Overall, 28 new mandates involving USD 7.88bn of debt were awarded across the region in 3Q26, compared with 36 mandates involving USD 28.71bn in 2Q26. In the first nine months of 2026, the region recorded 97 new mandates, down 11% from 9M25.

Australia

Australia accounted for 13 new mandates in 3Q26, which represented 46.4% of the regional total. Of these new mandates, seven were related to waste management & recycling company Bingo Industries’ transaction to extend the maturity of its nearly USD 700m-equivalent secured loans by three years and raise a new USD 125m facility. The transaction was completed on 30 September.

Bathla Group accounted for four new mandates in the quarter. Lenders to the real estate developer appointed receivers over various assets after Bathla appointed voluntary administrators in late August. Bathla, which has around USD 2.38bn-equivalent of debt, was also the region’s largest situation of the quarter by mandated debt.

The other two Australian situations were coal miner Australian Pacific Coal and renewable energy company Zen Energy.

In total, these four Australian situations accounted for USD 3.40bn of debt.

Mainland China

In 3Q26, China accounted for eight new mandates across five situations involving USD 2.57bn of debt. Seven of these mandates came from real estate developers that had already restructured in recent years:

• Redco Properties Group, which completed a distressed exchange in April 2022, obtained creditor approval at a scheme meeting on 16 October for its parallel schemes of arrangement to restructure USD 2.16bn of offshore debt.
• Yuzhou Group Holdings’ bondholders engaged advisors as the company was mulling a debt-to-equity swap for all its offshore debt, Debtwire reported in August. Yuzhou completed a Hong Kong scheme of arrangement to restructure its then USD 6.68bn of offshore debt in August 2025.
• China Aoyuan Group announced in September that receivers over its Kwai Chung property had provisionally agreed to sell the property. Aoyuan, which completed its previous restructuring process in March 2024, suspended all USD bond interest payments in March 2026 and engaged advisors in April 2026.
• A holder of Greenland Holding Group’s USD notes appointed advisors and instructed the trustee to convene a bondholder meeting to consider acceleration and other actions, Debtwire reported on 7 September. Greenland had launched multiple term-out consent solicitations on its USD notes before failing to complete a tender offer and consent solicitation in October 2025.

The only non-real estate Chinese situation was renewable energy company Shunfeng International Clean Energy, for which the Hong Kong High Court appointed liquidators in July 2026.

Rest of APAC

India-based Trustroot Internet accounted for four new mandates. The e-commerce company announced restructuring terms in mid-July 2026, after it failed to repay USD 170m of compulsorily convertible notes at their June maturity and was hit by a winding-up petition in Singapore in early July.

Of the remaining three mandates, two were related to Singapore-based commodities trader Radiant World Corp, and one to Hong Kong real estate company Parkview Group.

Top Advisors

In 3Q26, McGrathNicol, Houlihan Lokey, Moelis and PJT Partners jointly topped the financial advisor rankings by mandate count, with two mandates each.

By mandated debt, Teneo ranked first, thanks to its role as the voluntary administrator to Bathla. Haitong International ranked second for its role as financial advisor to Redco on its debt restructuring schemes.

For 9M26, Deloitte topped the financial advisor rankings by mandate count, with five mandates involving USD 7.10bn of debt, followed by Moelis with four mandates.

Akin Gump topped the legal counsel rankings in 3Q26 with two mandates, followed by 10 other law firms with one mandate each. White & Case and Campbells jointly led by mandated debt through their company-side roles in Redco’s schemes.

For 9M26, Kirkland & Ellis topped the legal counsel rankings by mandate count, with seven mandates involving USD 9.37bn of debt. Linklaters, Latham & Watkins and Ashurst tied for second place with three mandates each.

By mandated debt, Linklaters ranked first with USD 21.87bn of debt for its roles as company counsel to three Chinese developers: Aoyuan, CIFI Holdings and Fantasia Holdings.