An investment vehicle has taken full ownership of Tsinghua Unigroup Co. Ltd., concluding a bankruptcy reorganization plan the Chinese semiconductor conglomerate unveiled last year to deal with its debt crisis, CaixingGlobal.com reported. Tsinghua Unigroup has updated its business registration materials to show that Beijing Zhiguangxin Holding Co. Ltd. now owns 100% of the company, according to an exchange filing published on Monday. Zhiguangxin was created in November 2021 by a consortium led by Wise Road Capital Ltd. and Beijing Jianguang Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Commodity investors looking to China to reverse the rout in global metals markets may be disappointed, with Beijing unable to deliver the kind of investment splurge that powered past bull markets, Bloomberg News reported. Base metals had their worst quarter since 2008 in the three months to June, and the retreat deepened in July. Copper plunged briefly below $7,500 a ton in intraday trading last week, its lowest since late 2020, and is down about 29% from a March record. Iron ore is down about a third from its highest this year, and aluminum is about 40% lower.

Distressed Hong Kong property tycoon Pan Sutong was told by the city’s high court to go bankrupt, marking another blow to the former billionaire, Bloomberg News reported. The court ordered Pan to unwind his holding company, Silver Starlight Ltd, after he and the firm failed to pay creditors including China Citic Bank Corp HK$8 billion (US$1 billion) that was due in 2019, according to a court filing Friday. A representative for Pan said on Monday he is appealing the order.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki agreed on Tuesday to work together to tackle rising prices of food and energy, as well as volatility in currency markets, exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine, Reuters reported. They said that the war had raised exchange rate volatility, which could pose adverse implications for economic and financial stability, and pledged to cooperate "as appropriate" on currency issues.

China Evergrande Group suffered its first rejection from local creditors to extend a bond payment, a development that may result in a landmark onshore default and encourage investors to take a tougher stance against other developers battered by the nation’s property debt crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Holders of a puttable yuan-denominated bond from the firm’s main onshore unit Hengda Real Estate Group Co. rejected a plan to further extend payment past a July 8 deadline by six months, according to a Shenzhen stock exchange filing Monday.

A financial scandal in central China has touched depositors across the country, some of whom placed their life savings in four rural banks offering high rates of return, then found their funds frozen as investigators examined allegations of widespread fraud, the New York Times reported. When the bank customers began showing up in person to demand their money, the authorities in the city of Zhengzhou tried to use health code apps meant to prevent the spread of Covid-19 to prevent them from traveling. The city retreated after a backlash, and several officials were punished.

A slump in commercial-vehicle demand led China's automobile industry association on Monday to downgrade its sales forecast, as anti-pandemic measures weighed on the economy and its car market, the world's largest, Reuters reported. The industry will sell 27 million cars this year, up 3% on 2021, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers forecast, cutting its outlook from the 27.5 million sales and 5.4% growth it predicted in December. Weak demand for commercial vehicles, such as buses and trucks, drove the downgrade, data from the association showed.

Sri Lanka's parliament will reconvene on July 15 and a new president will be elected on July 20, the parliamentary speaker said on Monday, as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa plans to resign on Wednesday amid a devastating economic crisis, Reuters reported. "Nominations for the next president will be presented to parliament on 19 July. On 20 July parliament will vote to elect a new president," Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a statement.

Sri Lanka's central bank governor signaled on Monday he would stay in the job but warned that prolonged political instability in the country may delay progress on negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package, Reuters reported. Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, who has been holding bailout talks with the IMF since taking office in April, had told reporters in May he could resign if there was no political stability in the island nation of 22 million that is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades.

China unveiled tighter rules late on Thursday to better regulate its $1.3 trillion credit card industry, urging lenders to adopt a "prudent" growth strategy, and monitor risks more closely, Reuters reported. Banks are also barred from using the number of cards issued or market share as main performance metrics, and are required to cap the number of dormant cards at 20% of total, according to rules jointly published by China's central bank, and the country's banking regulator.