A court on Friday approved a request to allow discount store chain Homeplus Co. to pursue a merger and acquisition (M&A) deal before a court decision on whether to approve its rehabilitation plan, the Korea Times reported. The Seoul Bankruptcy Court approved Homeplus' pursuit of the M&A deal and the selection of an M&A adviser prior to its rehabilitation plan-related court ruling.

Former England footballer Trevor Sinclair has been declared bankrupt after a judge accused him of “burying his head in the sand” for failing to pay a five-figure amount related to his media work in 2021 and 2022, Sportstar reported. Sinclair, a 2002 World Cupper with the Three Lions, joined the Indian men’s team as part of its coaching staff during the AFC Asian Cup in Doha, Qatar, in January 2024. However, the team failed to score any goals and exited in the group stage after losses to Australia, Uzbekistan, and Syria.

The Philippine central bank delivered a widely expected interest-rate cut to support the economy, warning about slowing global growth and geopolitical risks, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas cut its benchmark overnight reverse repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 5.25%, its second reduction so far this year. It lowered its benchmark lending rate to 5.75% from 6.00%. The central bank has now cut rates by 125 basis points since the beginning of the easing cycle in August last year. Thursday’s decision comes after the U.S.

Japan's government plans to cut sales of super-long bonds by about 10% from its original plan in a rare revision to its bond programme for the current fiscal year, trimming overall bond issuance as a result, a draft document seen by Reuters showed, Reuters reported. The move aims to soothe market oversupply concerns, after weak demand at recent auctions and a surge in super-long yields to record highs last month rattled the bond market.

Australian employment dipped in May after solid gains the previous month, data showed on Thursday, although full-time jobs jumped and the jobless rate held steady in a sign of continued resilience in the labour market, Reuters reported. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that net employment dipped 2,500 in May from April, when they rose a revised 87,600. That was below market forecasts for a 22,500 increase, though the series has been very volatile in recent months. The jobless rate held at 4.1%, where it has been for over a year now.

The Victorian Liberal party will provide a $1.5m loan to former leader John Pesutto to ensure he can pay Moira Deeming’s legal fees and avoid bankruptcy, The Guardian reported. The loan was debated by the 19-member administrative committee on Thursday night and ultimately endorsed after a secret ballot, which was proposed to limit any factional retribution within a deeply divided party. Deeming, also a Liberal MP, successfully sued Pesutto for defamation after he falsely implied she sympathised with neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Failed Mosgiel businessman Malcolm Burns - who owes creditors millions - has finally been declared bankrupt despite a last-ditch effort to delay the decision a fourth time, the Otago Daily Times reported. Associate Judge Dale Lester declared Mr Burns bankrupt in the High Court at Dunedin on June 12 after the previous week giving him "a last chance" to pay what his company Otago Excavation owes vehicle leasing business FleetPartners Group.

Japan’s exports fell in May as shipments of autos to the U.S. dropped nearly 25% from a year earlier due to higher tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported. Exports fell 1.7% year-on-year, which was less than the decline analysts had forecast, the Finance Ministry reported Wednesday. Imports sank 7.7%, reflecting weakening domestic demand and worse than the 2% fall recorded in April. The trade deficit in May was 637.6 billion yen, or $4.4 billion.

The Bank of Japan unveiled a plan to step back from the bond market at a slower pace from next year to ensure market stability while sticking to a path of normalization that includes the possibility of more rate hikes, Bloomberg reported. Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board stood pat on its benchmark policy rate of 0.5% at the end of a two-day meeting Tuesday. In a widely expected move the central bank said it would ease the pace of its cuts to monthly bond purchases from the next fiscal year to quarterly reductions of ¥200 billion ($1.34 billion) from the current ¥400 billion.

The governor of China’s central bank outlined a plan on Wednesday for a global financial system that relies on several major currencies, not just the dollar, as Beijing steps up its campaign to weaken the U.S. dollar’s primacy, the New York Times reported. Pan Gongsheng, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, did not mention the dollar by name but gave an extended critique of the potential dangers of international reliance on a single country’s currency. In a coded reference to the U.S., Mr.