Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak faltered in his bid to get a High Court to halt bankruptcy proceedings against him for failing to pay a tax bill totalling RM1.74 billion (S$560 million), Bloomberg News reported. Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Ahmad Bache on Monday dismissed Najib’s application for a stay of execution, according to an email exchange between the court and relevant parties. Separately, the court of appeal will hear Najib’s plea on June 16, according to his lawyer Farhan Shafee.

A series of coronavirus outbreaks in Thai factories is raising concerns that the export sector could be hit hard, threatening to further undermine an economy as it struggles to recover from the pandemic's crippling blow to the crucial tourism industry, Reuters reported. The virus has swept through over 130 factories, including those supplying international brands, with more than 7,100 cases across 11 provinces, making manufacturing one of the top sources of infections along with prisons and construction camps.

Indorama Ventures Ltd (IVL) has competed the acquisition of the recycled polyethylene terephthalic (R-PET) assets of CarbonLite Holdings and its subsidiaries in Dallas, Texas, the Thailand-listed producer said today, ICIS.com reported. IVL has completed all formalities with regards to the acquisition "and has taken charge of the plant effective from 11 June 2021", it said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand. IVL won a $63.8m bid for CarbonLite's Dallas rPET facility during a May 24 auction. CarbonLite in March this year filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S.

Creditors of PT Sri Rejeki Isman, Indonesia’s biggest listed clothing firm, have submitted about 20 trillion rupiah ($1.4 billion) of outstanding claims as part of a debt-restructuring process, Bloomberg News reported. The claims include about 700 billion rupiah submitted by secured creditors and around 19 trillion rupiah from unsecured creditors as of June 10, according to Alfin Sulaiman, a member of an administrator team appointed by Indonesia’s Semarang commercial court. Verification is ongoing and the final amount will be released soon, Sulaiman said on Friday.

China's banking and insurance regulator issued rules on Tuesday on wealth management products for cash, tightening oversight of the $1 trillion market, Reuters reported. China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission banned such products from investing in stocks and convertible bonds and said the leverage level of each product should not exceed 120% normally, according to a statement on the regulator's website. The regulator also asked commercial banks and wealth management companies to conduct stress tests on such products to make sure they could deal with urgent redemptions.

Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance is close to an agreement to settle a dispute with a Hong Kong-based asset manager regarding unpaid debts, Bloomberg News reported. GFG is close to a settlement with TransAsia Private Capital, which was pressing to take control of a block of shares in Simec Atlantis Energy Ltd., a tidal-power developer owned by GFG, the person said, asking not to be identified as the matter is confidential. A GFG unit owns 43% of U.K.-listed Simec.

China's new bank loans unexpectedly rose in May from the previous month but broader credit growth continued to slow, as the central bank seeks to contain rising debt in the world's second-largest economy, Reuters reported. Top Chinese leaders have repeatedly vowed to avoid any sharp policy turns, keeping borrowing costs low and telling banks to maintain support for small firms, while being more watchful about extending credit to hot areas of the economy such as property.

Authorities in China escalated their campaign against cryptocurrencies, arresting more than 1,100 people suspected of using the digital assets to launder ill-gotten funds and ordering mines to shut down in one of its western provinces, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a swoop spanning 23 provinces, regions and cities, Chinese police on Wednesday rounded up more than 170 criminal groups that engaged in cryptocurrency trading in order to launder money obtained via telephone and online scams, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

Brazilian metropolitan rail company Supervia filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, the company said, as traffic was sharply hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. The company, controlled by a Japanese group that includes a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co 8031.T and West Japan Railway Co 9021.T, will restructure 1.2 billion reais ($237.4 million) in debt. Before the pandemic, Supervia, which operates in Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, had around 600,000 passengers a day but now the number has dropped to 300,000.