PRE-MARKET JAPANESE AND SOUTH KOREAN STOCKS NEWS: Daiichi Life Group (8750 JT) unit's takeover proposal for Challenger (CGF AT) was rejected

Daiichi Life Group (8750 JT) - Australian insurer Challenger rejected a takeover proposal from the Co.'s Australian subsidiary TAL, citing an insufficient offer price, but remains open to further discussions. (Nikkei)

Subaru (7270 JT) - Co. plans to phase out gasoline-powered vehicle sales in Europe by 2028, transitioning to an EV-only lineup as regulatory costs increase. (Nikkei)

Sumitomo Corp. (8053 JT) - Co. aims to expand battery energy storage operations in Japan by applying expertise gained from its UK operations, including the integration of battery storage with electricity trading. (Nikkei)

Japanese and German companies plan to collaborate on nuclear fusion technology, including a commercial power plant in Germany during the next decade, with Kyoto Fusioneering seeking to improve equipment and power generation technology. (Nikkei)

Japan plans to provide approximately JPY 100bln over four years to support mass production and commercialisation of next-generation flexible perovskite solar cells. (Nikkei)

Japanese life insurers, including Meiji Yasuda Life and Daiichi Life, are looking to increase purchases of higher-yielding long-dated JGBs as domestic bond yields rise. (Nikkei)

Industrial Bank of Korea (024110 KS) - Co. Q3 (KRW) net rose 2.7% Y/Y to 771.2bln (exp. 774.3bln), operating income rose 5.6% Y/Y to 1.03tln, rev. rose 78.9% Y/Y to 10.47tln. (Yonhap)

LIG Defense & Aerospace (079550 KS) - Co.'s CEO denied involvement in bribery allegations linked to weapons procurement bids, after the Defense Acquisition Program Administration barred the Co. from bidding on defence contracts for two years, with the Co. planning legal action to challenge the sanction. (Yonhap)

Rejected initial approaches that leave the door open to further discussion are a familiar opening sequence in cross-border insurance M&A: the target boards in this position have historically used an insufficiency argument on price to extract a revised bid rather than to shut the process down, and the acquirer's subsidiary structure here suggests a strategic, not opportunistic, interest in the Australian market. The tell is whether the bidder returns with a sweetened proposal or walks, since Australian life and annuity platforms have drawn repeated interest from Asian insurers seeking yield and diversification outside their low-rate home market. The wider Japanese insurer thread in the same note, a reported intent to add higher-yielding long-dated JGBs as domestic yields rise, is the established pattern of lifers rebalancing toward duration when the back end finally offers spread over liabilities, a flow that has historically supported the super-long sector at auction. The Korean defence item follows the standard sequence for procurement sanctions: denial, legal challenge, and a lengthy dispute over bid eligibility that typically overhangs the order book rather than cancelling it. The perovskite subsidy and fusion cooperation lines are programme announcements of the kind that tend to matter for specific supplier names only once procurement details emerge.