Many Asian corporations are undergoing a second wave of restructuring amid the US slowdown, an international accountancy and business counsultancy group said yesterday.
But the revamps were much smaller in magnitude compared to those during the 1997-1998 regional financial crisis, senior executives with Pricewaterhouse-Coopers said at the end of a four-day conference.
Paul Kirk, who heads the company's global business recovery services, said the 1997-1998 crisis had forced many companies to reschedule their debts and sparked government-led economic restructuring.
"A lot of debt rescheduling went on in the early stages. Three years into the process, [restructuring of] some of the debt rescheduling are appearing because we're still in this mode of economic downtime," he said.
"There will not be a quick answer to the debt rescheduling problems and they'll have to be done again but the second round of restructuring will not be anything like the first time."
Kirk said the restructuring process now was focused on operational and financial changes and Asian banks, which have undergone a consolidation, have better financial capacity to deal with it.
"It might take a year or two depending on the extraneous factors ... but the system is in place to ensure we come out a lot more quicker this time," he told a press conference.
A global downturn could slowdown the region's restructuring process but unlikely to have any "massive effect," he said.
David Smithers, managing partner of corporate finance and recovery in Asia-Pacific, said Japan was still under great economic stress but "its husbandry seems to be in the right direction and that's a big plus."
China's recovery on the other hand would be boosted by its eventual membership in the WTO.
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