An Australian company that clinched the first U.S. clearance for its at-home Covid-19 test kit has collapsed into liquidation after a sale to a competitor fell through, Bloomberg News reported. Covid-19 test maker Ellume Ltd.’s sale to Hough Consolidated Pty Ltd. unraveled this week, and the company is now winding down operations, according to a statement. Hough had agreed to buy the company in December for $38 million (A$56 million), but the deal fell apart after Hough made repeated requests to extend deadlines tied to the agreement.

HESTA, one of Australia's largest pension funds, on Wednesday froze work with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Australia, the latest fund to blacklist the firm amid a national scandal over its misuse of confidential government tax plans, Reuters reported. The A$72 billion ($48 billion) fund is "very concerned" and will "restrict consideration of PwC for any new or additional service provision", according to a statement on Wednesday. The fund is audited by PwC.

In mid-May, cryptocurrency exchange Binance got some bad news in a far-flung corner of its sprawling universe. Binance’s payments partner in Australia had abruptly cut it off, meaning local customers couldn’t deposit Aussie dollars on the platform via bank transfer. The hit to business was immediate, with Binance halting all Aussie trading pairs about two weeks later, along with bank withdrawals of the local currency, Bloomberg News reported.

Australia's largest pension fund will pause use of the domestic unit of auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as the "big four" firm reels from a national scandal over its use of confidential government tax plans to drum up work with global clients, Reuters reported. The roughly A$290 billion ($196.71 billion) fund, AustralianSuper, has frozen new contracts with PwC and expressed concerns about the scandal "at the highest level", according to a spokesperson. An audit contract worth A$1.6 million in 2022, will be reviewed this year, the spokesperson added.

The cancer-treatment specialist GenesisCare has filed for bankruptcy protection, after struggling under a debt load enlarged by a $1.5 billion takeover, the Wall Street Journal reported. Australia-based GenesisCare said today that it would split its U.S. business from operations in Australia, Spain and the U.K. as part of the U.S. chapter 11 reorganization. GenesisCare didn't say how much debt would be affected by the filing. GenesisCare is backed by the U.S. private-equity giant KKR.

The Australian arm of Binance, the world's largest crypto-currency exchange, on Thursday said some customers there will be unable to deposit or withdraw money after a third-party service provider cut off its service, Reuters reported. Binance said on social media that users would be unable to make Australian dollar deposits by bank transfer with immediate effect after payments provider Cuscal cut access. Withdrawals would also be cut off, it said, without detailing when.

Australia employment unexpectedly dipped in April after two months of outsized gains, and the jobless rate also ticked up in a sign the red-hot labour market might be cooling, bolstering the case for a pause in interest rate hikes next month, Reuters reported. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released on Thursday showed net employment fell by 4,300 in April from March, when it rebounded by a revised 61,100. Market forecasts had been for a rise of 25,000.

Australia is headed for its first budget surplus since 2008 as windfall tax revenue from a fully employed economy and elevated commodity export prices combine to swell the government’s coffers, Bloomberg News reported. Treasurer Jim Chalmers will forecast a surplus of around A$4 billion ($2.7 billion) in the 12 months through June 2023 when he hands down the budget at 7:30 pm local time Tuesday at Parliament House in Canberra. The document will also show smaller deficits over future years than previously anticipated.

Brisbane-based Everledger, which used blockchain technology to track the provenance of diamonds and other precious goods, has been quietly placed into voluntary administration after expected investor funding failed to happen, the Australian Financial Review reported. The move came despite it securing backing from the federal government and Chinese internet giant Tencent. The company was founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneur and former Queensland chief entrepreneur Leanne Kemp, as a way to use blockchain technology to track the provenance of diamonds.