Headlines

The Sydney Fish Market (SFM), responding to reports it was confronting an $8m loss for 2023-24 and had allegedly brought in insolvency experts, stated bluntly it remained a viable business, NewsWire.com reported. “Sydney Fish Market refutes claims that it is close to insolvency,” according to an SFM spokeswoman. “It is taking longer than anticipated to finalise our financial report, due to extenuating circumstances related to the once in a generation transition to the new Sydney Fish Market. “We are finalising the financial report with the appropriate level of due diligence.

Greentown China Holdings Ltd. priced a $350 million bond to refinance offshore debt, the first dollar note sold by a major Chinese property firm since 2023, Bloomberg News reported. The state-backed company is issuing the three-year note, callable after two, at a yield of 8.45%, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. That’s 40 basis points tighter than initial price guidance. Greentown earlier Thursday unveiled an offer to repurchase two dollar bonds maturing later this year that are trading near par.

The Philippine central bank surprised markets by keeping its policy rate on hold, pausing its easing cycle due to what it said was a significant rise in global uncertainty, particularly over trade policy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas maintained its benchmark overnight reverse repurchase rate at 5.75%, Gov. Eli Remolona said Thursday. It also held its benchmark lending rate steady at 6.25%. Risks and uncertainty to the global outlook justify keeping rates on hold now, the central bank governor said.

Indonesia is seeking to diversify its markets as global protectionism intensifies, while also taking steps to defend its local manufacturers, Deputy Trade Minister Dyah Roro Esti Widya Putri said, Bloomberg News reported. “Trump’s statements on tariffs are quite shocking in a lot of ways, but we think Indonesia could maximize its market potential if the US imposes tariffs on Chinese goods,” Roro said in an interview in Jakarta late Wednesday.

The pace of gains in Japan’s corporate goods prices accelerated last month to the fastest clip in 19 months, keeping the Bank of Japan on track for further interest rate hikes, Bloomberg News reported. The measure of input prices for Japanese firms rose 4.2% in January from a year earlier, the BOJ reported Thursday. The gain, led by agricultural products such as rice, was bigger than the consensus estimate of 4% and compared with a revised 3.9% advance a month earlier.

The U.K.’s competition regulator plans to speed up its reviews of large deals in response to pressure to help boost the country’s economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. “We know speed of decision making is vital to reduce uncertainty and costs for businesses,” Sarah Cardell, the Competition and Markets Authority’s chief executive, said in a blog post Thursday. She noted the vast majority of deals reviewed by the CMA end up getting cleared. “We must move as quickly as possible to get to the right decisions,” she said.

Germany faces major labour disputes in 2025, as an established bond between firms and workers -- long seen as a pillar of the country's economic success -- is starting to unravel in the wake of brutal competition, economic weakness and spiralling costs, Reuters reported. Labour bosses at industrial giants Bosch, Thyssenkrupp Friedrichshafen and Volkswagen - jointly representing more than half a million German workers - say that firms are showing a new level of determination to cut jobs, close factories and move staff abroad.

Telecom Italia SpA has hired UniCredit SpA to help evaluate its options as suitors circle the former Italian phone monopoly, Bloomberg News reported. Advisers at Italy’s second-largest bank will work with Telecom Italia to review scenarios that could increase its value in an approach. Billionaire Xavier Niel and buyout firm CVC Capital Partners Plc are separately exploring deals for Telecom Italia that could pave the way for its eventual combination with the local unit of Niel’s Iliad SA, Bloomberg reported last week.

S&P Global completed the list of top credit rating agencies to warn that an "unprecedented" U.S. withdrawal from the World Bank and other top multilateral lenders would damage their prized triple-A credit ratings, Reuters reported. President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order last week for a six-month review of U.S. support to all international intergovernmental organisations to decide whether it should withdraw from them, or seek their reform. S&P said the current triple-A ratings of the World Bank and other top development banks assume the U.S. remaining in place.

Chinese authorities are working on a proposal to help China Vanke Co. plug a funding gap of about 50 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) this year, according to people familiar with the matter, highlighting the government’s support for the distressed developer, Bloomberg News reported. Under the plan, regulators would allocate 20 billion yuan of special local government bond quota for the purchase of unsold properties and vacant land from Vanke, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing private information.