Two of Asia’s financial hubs aimed to reinvent the SPAC. So far, it is proving slow going, the Wall Street Journal reported. Exchanges in Hong Kong and Singapore have always said they aim for quality not quantity with their rules for blank-check companies, touting better investor protection than in the U.S. But as the U.S. SPAC business has lost momentum, global banks and international investors have grown more cautious about their involvement in these vehicles.

China’s property sector started to crumble under the weight of its huge debts. What was already shaping up to be the country’s worst housing market in years suffered another blow when a new variant of the coronavirus triggered widespread lockdowns and brought the economy to a standstill, the New York Times reported.

A bankruptcy court in Mumbai has admitted property developer Nirmal Lifestyle Kalyan Pvt Ltd under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) following a plea filed by Srei Equipment Finance Ltd., the Economic Times of India reported. Kolkata-based Srei Equipment Finance Ltd had approached the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) after Nirmal Lifestyle Kalyan, an affiliate of Mumbai-based Nirmal Lifestyle Ltd, defaulted on its dues worth around Rs 84 crore.

At least four Thai insurance companies have gone bankrupt after suffering losses from selling low-cost COVID-19 policies, raising fears of a domino effect that could weigh on the country's non-life insurance sector, Nikkei Asia reported. Syn Mun Kong Insurance is looking to raise capital and find new partners to stay afloat as it navigates a court-supervised rehabilitation. "Some foreign investors have expressed interest in joining us. We are in talks," said a source close to deals that could affect Syn Mun Kong's ability to retain its business license.

Babel Finance, the Hong Kong-based crypto lender which suspended withdrawals and redemption of crypto assets on Friday, said that it has reached an agreement with counterparties on the repayment of some debts to ease short-term liquidity, Reuters reported. Cryptocurrency valuations have plunged in recent weeks as investors dump risky assets in a rising interest rate environment. Bitcoin BTC=BTSP, which reached a record high of $69,000 in November, lost more than half its value this year.

Central banks around the world are raising interest rates rapidly, except one. The Bank of Japan affirmed on Friday that it wanted rates around zero, even if investors are using that as a reason to sell the yen, the Wall Street Journal reported. “It is not appropriate to tighten monetary policy at this point,” said Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda. “If we raise interest rates, the economy will move into a negative direction.” Japan’s outlier status partly reflects its less-serious inflation problem—prices rose 2.5% overall in April, compared with more than 8% recently in the U.S.

Australia's central bank decided to raise interest rates by a larger 50 basis points this month because policy would still be very stimulative and it needed to be normalised to stop high inflation becoming entrenched, Reuters reported. Minutes of its June 7 Board meeting, showed the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) discussed lifting the 0.35% cash rate by 25 basis points or 50 basis points and chose the latter as inflation had already outpaced all expectations.

In China, an army of college students is set to enter the toughest job market in years, as Covid-19 takes the wind out of the broader economy and Beijing’s regulatory campaigns devastate industries long attractive to the country’s young people, the Wall Street Journal reported. Wang Shusheng, a student at a university in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou who is set to collect his diploma next week, said he has sent his résumé to more than 250 companies in the past few weeks, including some that he submitted at 2 a.m. during bouts of anxiety.

A judge declined to end exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui’s personal bankruptcy, siding with the Justice Department and some of his creditors who asked that a neutral party be brought in to take charge of his finances, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Julie Manning of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Bridgeport, Conn., yesterday ordered that an independent trustee be appointed to take over Mr. Guo’s chapter 11 case and work with his creditors on a plan to pay his debts and potentially resolve civil lawsuits against him. The ruling is a blow to Mr.

China’s economy improved slightly in May, offering hints of a recovery that is likely to remain fragile under the continuing threat of pandemic-related lockdowns, the Wall Street Journal reported. Official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed an uptick in factory production and a smaller decline in retail sales in the world’s second-largest economy last month. Industrial production edged up 0.7% in May from a year earlier, reversing an almost 3% contraction in April, a sign that factories had resumed operations as Covid-19 curbs eased.