Governments are accelerating efforts to secure critical mineral supply chains for batteries, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and defence technologies. However, Rio Tinto says the commercial conditions needed to unlock large-scale new supply remain far less certain.

One of the investors in the undisclosed licencing deal is fast-growing Chinese tea firm Ningji.

China is strengthening oversight of outbound investment through new regulations from July 1 that are designed to safeguard national interests, following an earlier ban on Meta’s acquisition of AI firm Manus.

The US investment giant exceeded its $10bn target after an active 24 months of deals in the region, especially in India and Japan.

The construction and infrastructure disputes specialist succeeds Terence Tung; Tung remains a partner at the Hong Kong law firm.

The US pharmaceutical giant will pay $650m upfront to support 12 cancer medicine programmes with HKEX-listed Innovent; the collaboration includes co-commercialisation rights in the US and Europe.

Hong Kong's finance secretary Paul Chan said the deal will "attract more cross-boundary Rmb financing and trading activities to Hong Kong".

Andrew Yates, KPMG Australia's CEO, and Julian McPherson, national managing partner audit and assurance, have resigned after an investigation into a whistleblower's allegations over data use was not conducted with "necessary rigour". Principia Advisory is conducting a culture review.