Hong Kong is making a pitch to multinational companies to list on its stock market, despite heightened tensions between China and the West, the Wall Street Journal reported. The city’s stock exchange hopes a new initiative that allows mainland Chinese investors to trade shares of international companies will present a compelling case for some of the world’s largest businesses to raise funds in the Asian financial hub.

Chinese regulators have said e-commerce giant Alibaba’s finance affiliate Ant Group can raise $1.5 billion for its consumer finance unit in an important step forward after the government called off a planned IPO two years ago and ordered the firm to restructure, the Associated Press reported. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) in the southwestern city of Chongqing said in a notice dated Dec. 30 that Ant’s consumer credit unit had gained approval to increase its capital to 18.5 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) from 8 billion yuan ($1.16 billion).

A tender for the sale of embattled China Evergrande Group's headquarters in Hong Kong has lapsed again, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, because the offer prices and terms fell short of requirements, Reuters reported. Lenders to the office tower, China Evergrande Centre, valued at between HK$8 billion and HK$9 billion ($1.02 billion and $1.15 billion), appointed a receiver in September to seize the asset and tender it for sale with a bid deadline of Oct 31.

Three weeks after Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, tried to reinvigorate China’s stalled economy by abruptly abandoning his stringent pandemic restrictions, he struck an upbeat note in his annual New Year’s Eve address. “China’s economy has strong resilience, great potential and vitality,” he said. But that optimism is hard to find in downtown Guangzhou, the commercial hub of southern China, the New York Times reported. Nearly three years of “zero Covid” measures have crushed businesses. Streets are lined with shuttered stores and workshops.

Japan is the world’s largest creditor. At the end of 2021, it held roughly $3.2 trillion in foreign assets, 30 percent more than No. 2 Germany. As of October, it owned over a trillion dollars of U.S. government debt, more than China. Japanese banks are the world’s largest cross-border lenders, with nearly $4.8 trillion in claims in other countries. Late last month, the world got an unexpected reminder of how integral Japan is to the global economy, when the country’s central bank unexpectedly announced that it was adjusting its stance on bond purchases, the New York Times reported.

Turkish inflation decelerated at its steepest pace in more than a quarter century, a slowdown that may be at risk from a public spending splurge planned ahead of elections, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose an annual 64.3% in December, down from 84.4% the previous month, according to data released by state statistics agency TurkStat on Tuesday. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 66.7%.

FTX Japan customers will be able to withdraw their funds as of mid-February, the subsidiary of FTX Trading said in a blog post on Thursday, making them some of the first customers of the collapsed crypto exchange to get their money back, CoinDesk.com reported. FTX Japan said that it was previously able to confirm with the company's bankruptcy lawyers in the U.S.

The bankruptcy court has admitted Marvel Realtors & Developers Ltd under the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) and appointed Manoj Kumar Mishra as the interim resolution professional for the Pune-based realty firm, the Economic Times of India reported. The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) allowed the petition filed by company’s lender IDFC First Bank to initiate the insolvency proceedings. The lender had approached the bankruptcy court after the realty firm defaulted on its dues of over Rs 44.50 crore.

China's factory activity shrank for the third straight month in December and at the sharpest pace in nearly three years as COVID infections swept through production lines across the country after Beijing's abrupt reversal of anti-virus measures, Reuters reported. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 47.0 from 48.0 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected the PMI to come in at 48.0. The 50-point mark separates contraction from growth on a monthly basis.

South Korea's factory activity shrank for a sixth consecutive month in December, a business survey showed on Monday, as the global economic downturn and a local truckers' strike led to the worst slump in demand in 2-1/2 years, Reuters reported. The S&P Global purchasing managers' index (PMI) for South Korea manufacturers fell to a seasonally-adjusted 48.2 last month from 49.0 in November.