Europe

U.K. house prices climbed to within touching distance of a record high at the end of last year, according to industry figures from Nationwide Building Society, suggesting the resilient property market gathered more momentum, Bloomberg News reported. The lender said prices rose 0.7% month-on-month to an average of £269,426 ($338,000), a fraction below the record high of £273,751 ($343,000) set in the summer of 2022.

The Bank of England said on Thursday it had allotted 46.180 billion pounds ($57.49 billion) at its first short-term repo of 2025, the second-highest amount on record and up from 38.075 billion pounds at a repo on Dec. 19, Reuters reported. The short-term repo allows banks to borrow money from the BoE - usually for a seven-day period - in exchange for high-quality collateral and is designed by the BoE to keep interbank lending rates close to its policy interest rate. The highest amount allotted in the repo was 46.743 billion pounds on Oct.

Germany’s jobless rate held steady in December despite the continuing specter of jobs losses at major manufacturing firms, the Wall Street Journal reported. Germany’s adjusted unemployment rate was stable at 6.1% in December, data from the Federal Employment Agency showed Friday. However, there are indications the jobs market is cooling. Jobless claims ticked up 10,000 in December, on an adjusted basis, more than the 6,000 in November. Registered job vacancies stood at 654,000, around 59,000 fewer than the same point last year.

The board of Cork-based PMD Device Solutions has filed for bankruptcy following a review of the company’s financial position which found that it could not resolve its short-term liquidity requirements rendering it unable to meet critical obligations, the Irish Examiner reported. PMD Device Solutions develops and sells medical products for respiratory monitoring in both the hospital acute monitoring sector and the remote monitoring home care sector.

Austria's Supreme Court of Justice has rejected a restructuring plan for Signa Development, a unit of property tycoon Rene Benko's firm Signa, meaning it must undergo bankruptcy proceedings, the insolvency administrator said on Monday, Reuters reported. The aim is now to utilize the assets of the business as well as possible in the interests of the creditors, insolvency administrator Andrea Fruhstorfer said in a statement. The Supreme Court's decision dismissed an appeal by Signa Development and upheld an earlier ruling by a top appeal court in Vienna, the statement said.

The company behind a proposed multi-billion pound theme park dubbed the 'Dartford Disneyland' is being taken to court by Hollywood studio Paramount, Yahoo Finance U.K. reported. London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) had hoped to build the controversial attraction on the 372-acre Swanscombe Peninsula near Dartford, Kent and close to south Essex. First announced back in 2012, the huge park was envisioned to feature rollercoasters, water parks, hotels and live entertainment venues and would have been at least three times the size of any other theme park in the UK.

Insolvencies and restructuring could rise further over the start of 2025 as firms face more increased cost pressures, industry experts have warned, PAMedia.com reported. Restructuring bosses have cautioned that impending cost rises linked to the autumn Budget could particularly weigh on the retail, hospitality and care sectors. It comes after official figures pointed towards an uptick in insolvencies at the end of this year. Company insolvencies lifted by 13% in November compared with the previous month, although they were lower year-on-year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

German air taxi manufacturer Volocopter has declared insolvency as it seeks new funding, the company announced from its headquarters at Bruchsal near Stuttgart, DPA International reported. "The company needs funding that will allow it to take the final steps to entering the market," the new court-appointed insolvency administrator said. Volocopter still needs type certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for its electrical vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to be allowed to carry passengers.

Terraform Labs Pte. co-founder Do Kwon will be handed over to the US for prosecution, the government of Montenegro said, potentially ending a standoff over competing extradition demands by the US and Kwon’s native South Korea, Bloomberg News reported. “Most criteria envisaged by the law are in favor of the extradition demands from the institutions of the United States of America,” the Montenegro’s Justice Ministry said in statement posted on its website. It said Minister Bojan Bozovic made the decision on Friday, without specifying when the handover may take place.