Debtwire‘s 3Q25 APAC Restructuring Advisory Mandates Report shows that the number of mandates awarded to insolvency and restructuring professionals across Asia-Pacific continued to plummet QoQ in 3Q25, with new mandates from Chinese companies hitting its lowest level in six years.

A total of 12 new mandates were awarded in 3Q25, down from 26 in 2Q25 and 73 in 3Q24. The advisory roles in 3Q25 related to 10 situations involving USD 10.3bn of debt, compared with USD 25.8bn in 2Q25 and USD 41.4bn in 3Q24.

For the nine months ended 30 September 2025, a total of 101 mandates were awarded, involving 53 situations and USD 109.5bn of debt. As a comparison, there were 207 new mandates in 9M24 involving 85 situations and USD 142.9bn of debt.

Mainland China

Despite a 70% QoQ drop in the number of new mandates, China remained the main source of opportunities in the region in 3Q25, providing six of the 12 new mandates in the quarter.

Of the six engagements, four came from three Chinese real estate developers: China South City Holdings, Greenland Holdings Group and Xinyuan Real Estate.

• China South City: CSC was ordered wound up by the Hong Kong High Court in August, making it the nineth developer to receive a winding-up order for itself or an offshore bond-issuing vehicle since the current distress cycle began in July 2021.
• Greenland: Greenland terminated its proposed tender offer and consent solicitation on 3 October, citing failure to secure funding for the proposal. Under the plan which was announced on 1 August, Greenland proposed to buy back its USD 3.4bn offshore notes at an 81% discount.
• Xinyuan: Xinyuan, which secured shareholders’ approval for its proposed restructuring and spin-off in July 2025, appointed a financial advisor in 3Q25 to conduct a liquidation analysis.

The other two new mandates from mainland China came from glass maker China Glass Holdings and solar energy company Shunfeng International Clean Energy.

Legacy situations dominate

As was the case in 2Q25, a majority (8) of new mandates came from seven legacy situations, which combined involved USD 6.7bn debt. Debtwire defines legacy situations, as opposed to new situations, as those in which a company-side mandate was awarded or a known event of default occurred prior to the start of the quarter.

In 3Q25, three new situations contributed four mandates. This included one mandate from the previously mentioned restructuring of Greenland and two mandates each related to China Glass Holdings and mm2 Asia.

• China Glass Holdings: The Chinese glass maker engaged CICC for restructuring talks with the providers of a USD 141.7m syndicated loan that it failed to repay on the 15 August maturity date, as Debtwire reported on 26 August.
• mm2 Asia: On 2 September, the Singapore-based media firm signed a deed of amendment with the holder of its SGD 54m due-December 2025 notes. As per a 17 July announcement, the amendment includes a six-year maturity extension and an option to allow the company to further extend the maturity by another two years.

Top advisors

In 3Q25, 12 financial advisors were awarded one new mandate each while no legal advisor won any mandate.

For the nine months ended September 2025, FTI Consulting won the most mandates of any financial advisory firm, with 12 new mandates involving USD 50.7bn debt. Deloitte came second with five new mandates involving USD 2.1bn debt.

For the same period, Linklaters and Ashurst were tied as the top legal advisors with four new mandates each.

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].