Hong Kong rail giant the MTR Corporation has raised €3 billion (U$3.5 billion) by selling its first euro-denominated public green bonds, in its largest bond deal to date. The semi-privatised corporation said on Thursday that the sale also marked the largest Asia ex-Japan non-sovereign euro green bond offering. Amid a string of new rail projects in Hong Kong, the MTR Corp is raising fresh capital to fund them. The latest deal is the third round of bond sales so far this year,

A museum in eastern France on Sunday reported to police the theft of a banana that forms a core part of a multimillion-dollar artwork by Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan. The missing fruit – which was taped to a wall to form the provocative work by Cattelan called “Comedian” – was noticed by a guard on Saturday to have gone missing. An iteration of the artwork was bought by Chinese-born cryptocurrency founder Justin Sun in 2024. He forked out US$6.2 million for the wor

Australia’s populist One Nation party surged past the ruling Labor party to lead a nationwide opinion poll for the first time, highlighting voter disappointment with last month’s budget and reinforcing signs of a fracturing of the conservative side of politics. One Nation’s primary vote advanced 4 percentage points to 31 per cent from a previous poll conducted ahead of the May 12 budget, while the centre-left government slipped 3 points to 28 per cent, according to a Redbridg

China’s leading memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies is taking a major step toward a domestic stock market debut. According to filings published by China’s securities regulator, Yangtze Memory Technologies Holding Co. has completed IPO tutoring registration with the Hubei branch of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, with CITIC Securities acting as its sponsor for a planned public listing. Reuters previously reported that the company could formally submit its

Hainan Airlines, China's largest private air carrier, said it is interested in launching more China-US direct flights, as more Chinese travelers are visiting the US, further stimulating the vitality of the market.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank announced on Monday a $250 million loan for a natural gas project in Beijing, the bank's first such investment in China, to help cut coal use and improve air quality in the capital area.

Faced with needing to raise investments for demolition and construction, cities like Shenzhen have begun exploring ways for homeowners to redesign aging structures themselves.

Hong Kong families in the United Kingdom and Canada are facing deep uncertainty due to shifting immigration policies and the rising cost of living, and some are looking for alternative destinations to settle. Property agents said Spain’s Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV), designed for retirees and anyone who can support themselves without employment, had become one of their top choices. The NLV provides a pathway for citizens outside the European Union and the European Economic Area w

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday it will stop selling home appliances in mainland China, marking the company’s full exit from the country’s consumer appliance retail market amid shifting market conditions. The South Korean tech giant said the decision takes effect immediately and applies to all appliance categories, including televisions, monitors, refrigerators and washing machines. Its smartphone business in China will continue operating as usual. The company said custome

Hong Kong has finalised its regulatory framework for the digital asset industry, wrapping up a public consultation on a new licensing regime for firms advising on and managing virtual assets. Signalling a milestone in the city’s quest to become a global crypto hub, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said on Tuesday that the proposed rules received “broad market support” and would head to the Legislative Counci

China will strengthen innovation by developing high-tech industries with military technologies to boost military-civil integration, a move that aims to cultivate new growth drivers and boost the economy, said a recent State Council guideline.

Hong Kong’s finance chief has said the Middle East war has played only a limited role in driving up local inflation, given the city’s service-based economy and stable energy supplies from mainland China mitigated external shocks. Briefing the Legislative Council on Monday, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the surge in global fuel prices was expected to affect fuel-related consumer prices, pushing inflation higher. The government earlier revised its 2026 forecasts for

Malaysia is unlikely to come close to a US call for Asian partners to spend 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product on defence, analysts have said, as Putrajaya tries to modernise an ageing military without overwhelming public finances or appearing to align with Washington’s China strategy. Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the US had “every right” to ask allies to raise defence expenditure, but stressed that Malaysia faced limits as a developing economy. “For a coun

Unitree Robotics, a luminary in China’s humanoid robot boom, has reported a sharp plunge in first-quarter profits just days before its crucial listing hearing, casting a shadow over its Star Market initial public offering (IPO) as soaring expenses and a brutal price war catch up to the industry’s hype. The Shanghai Stock Exchange’s listing committee is scheduled to review Unitree’s IPO application on June 1, according to an exchange notice on Monday. The company, based in Han

A museum in eastern France on Sunday reported to police the theft of a banana that forms a core part of a multimillion-dollar artwork by Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan. The missing fruit – which was taped to a wall to form the provocative work by Cattelan called Comedian – was noticed by a guard on Saturday to have gone missing. An iteration of the artwork was bought by Chinese-born cryptocurrency founder Justin Sun in 2024. He forked out US$6.2 million for the work,

This report was translated from Chinese into English using Alibaba’s Qwen3, then checked and tweaked for accuracy by a South China Morning Post journalist. It is for reference only, and is not the official English version of the original Chinese document. Alibaba owns the SCMP.

At least one company under Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund will list on the Hong Kong stock exchange this year, the head of the city’s Trade Development Council has said. Council chairman Frederick Ma Si-hang on Tuesday also underscored the country’s huge potential, noting that Kazakhstan was seeking to privatise its state-owned companies and Hong Kong had emerged as the ideal location due to its mature capital market. A high-level delegation organised by the council and l

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Wednesday that China is “very interested” in additional Boeing plane purchases, an issue the Trump administration plans to press when President Xi Jinping visits the United States in September. “They agreed to 200 aeroplanes during the visit. We will see if they commit to a larger number when Xi Jinping arrives in Washington,” Bessent said in his budget request testimony to the Senate Finance Committee. China’s commitment to buy

TikTok has secured approval for a $25 billion data center expansion project in Thailand, as the Southeast Asian nation accelerates efforts to position itself as a regional digital infrastructure hub. Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) announced that it had approved six large-scale investment projects with a combined value of 958 billion baht (about $29 billion), part of a broader push to strengthen power supply capacity, expand access to clean energy and attract strategic f

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Wednesday that China is “very interested” in additional Boeing plane purchases, an issue the Trump administration plans to press when President Xi Jinping visits the United States in September. “They agreed to 200 aeroplanes during the visit. We will see if they commit to a larger number when Xi Jinping arrives in Washington,” Bessent said in his budget request testimony to the Senate Finance Committee. China’s commitment to buy