In FY25, the Asia-Pacific (ex-Japan) market recorded 137 new mandates (down 43.9% YoY), the lowest full-year tally since Debtwire began tracking the data in 2016. Through these mandates, restructuring/insolvency professionals advised on USD 112.9bn of debt (down 26.8% YoY).

Mainland China

In 4Q25, China accounted for 17 new mandates on USD 22.1bn of debt, representing 56.7% of the number of new mandates and 74.1% of total debt being advised on in the region. All these 17 new mandates were related to the real estate sector, including two new situations – China Fortune Land Development (CFLD) and Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group (DWCM):

• CFLD: In November, a PRC court has ordered the Chinese developer into a pre-restructuring process due to an application filed by a construction contractor. CFLD, which had CNY 138bn (USD 19.8bn) debt outstanding as of end-June 2025, completed a UK scheme to restructure its then-outstanding USD 5bn offshore bonds in January 2023.
• DWCM: In December 2025, Dalian Wanda Group’s commercial property investment and operation arm launched a now-completed term-out consent solicitation to extend the maturity of its USD 400m due-February 2026 notes by two years. Before that, DWCM completed multiple out-of-court processes to term out/amend the terms of its USD bond tranches on a piecemeal basis.

In 2025, 35 onshore Chinese situations contributed 75 new mandates on USD 97.1bn of debt. Among them, 22 real estate situations made up 54 (39.4%) of the new mandates, and USD 73.6bn (65.2%) of debt. By comparison, there were 115 new mandates awarded on USD 126.1bn of debt from all onshore Chinese situations in 2024.

Hong Kong

In 4Q25, Hong Kong had the second-highest number of new mandates, with seven restructuring mandates awarded on USD 6.8bn of debt. The Cheng family-controlled property developer New World Development (NWD) contributed six mandates through the exchange offer it launched on 3 November 2025. As per the offer terms, NWD sought to swap its USD 4.5bn perps and its USD 2.3bn notes into new perps and new due-November 2031 notes. The offer was completed in December 2025.

The other mandate came from Tse Sui Luen Jewellery (TSL). The jeweller announced a three-year maturity extension for its USD 64m-equivalent loans on 14 November 2025. The previous day, Debtwire reported that it had appointed a financial advisor to engage in loan restructuring talks.

In FY25, Hong Kong accounted for 15 new mandates across five situations, ranking behind China and Australia. Other than the 10 mandates related to NWD, four other mandates were also related to real estate situations, including two from construction company Paul Y. Engineering, as well as one each from DreamEast Group and Maulden Investments.

TSL was the only non-real estate-related situation from Hong Kong in 2025.

Australia

Australia recorded four new mandates in the final quarter of the year, with pub and hotel operator Public Hospitality Group (PHG) contributing two of these. Debtwire reported on 29 October that the company’s administrators appointed a legal advisor while its lenders and receivers over certain PHG assets also appointed their legal advisor.

The other mandates related to the real estate group formerly known as Milligan Group Holdings. A lender of the company appointed receivers over a South Sydney commercial property owned by the group, Debtwire reported on 25 November. As per the article, the lender has also appointed a legal advisor.

In 2025 Australia recorded the second highest number of new mandates in the region, with 29 new roles over USD 4.3bn of debt across 11 situations.

Top advisors

Deloitte, Deutsche Bank and AlixPartners were tied as the top financial advisors in 4Q25, each securing two new mandates. Deloitte’s mandates were both related to Chinese real estate developers, acting as the financial advisor of China South City Holdings’ largest shareholder Shenzhen SEZ Construction and Development Group, and as a special auditor for CFLD’s onshore creditors. Deutsche Bank’s mandates were also related to real estate situations: acting as a solicitation agent in DWCM’s consent solicitation and a dealer manager in NWD’s exchange offer. AlixPartners acted as the financial advisor to the lenders of Road King Infrastructure and as the company-side financial advisor for Hong Kong-based TSL.

By debt volume, Deloitte ranked first in 4Q25, having been mandated on situations involving USD 8.2bn of debt, followed by Deutsche Bank with USD 7.2bn.

For full year 2025, FTI Consulting secured the most mandates among financial advisors, with 12 new appointments. Deloitte came second with six new mandates while Alvarez & Marsal and Houlihan Lokey were tied in third place with five. In terms of mandated debt, FTI also ranked first as it was involved in situations related to USD 33bn of debt. BOCI came second, advising on USD 10.1bn of debt.

In 4Q25, all 15 new legal advisor mandates were awarded to different law firms. Among them, King & Wood Mallesons advised on the largest amount of debt, having been appointed interim administrator of CFLD in relation to its USD 19.8bn debt.

For full year 2025, Ashurst and Linklaters were tied as the top legal advisors with five new mandates each. Ashurst’s mandates include three creditor-side roles related to CFLD, Sunac China Holdings and Australia mineral miner Strandline Resources, and two company/shareholder-side roles related to China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group and LVGEM (China) Real Estate Investment.

Linklaters’ roles were all on the company side, including acting for DWCM, LVGEM, NWD, India-based Sona Company, as well as for the solicitation agent of Road King’s failed consent solicitation.

In terms of mandated debt, King & Wood Mallesons came first, advising on USD 38.3bn of debt while Sidley Austin came second for USD 18.6bn debt.

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].