The long-running battle between Damen and the Romanian government over the operations of the Mangalia shipyard on the Black Sea took a new step as a court in Constanta initiated an insolvency procedure. An administrator has been appointed to look for a recovery plan for the shipyard, the Maritime Executive reported. The Netherlands’ Damen took operational control of the shipyard in 2018 with high expectations for the operation which remained 51 percent owned by the government. The yard had been in operation since 1976 known for 20 years as the 2 Mai Mangalia Shipyard.

Austrian prosecutors raided the home of Signa founder Rene Benko and his insolvent company’s headquarters as part of a fraud investigation, Bloomberg News reported. A lawyer for Benko confirmed the search of the residence on Tuesday and said his client was cooperating with authorities. “A search is currently being carried out on site in order to seize any documents relating to the allegations that have already been reported,” Norbert Wess said by email, referring to suspicions in the wake of Signa’s collapse. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment.

As Credit Suisse spiraled toward insolvency early last year, a group of Swiss bankers, technocrats and regional officials were already busy laying the groundwork for a new type of financial infrastructure, Bloomberg News reported. Nine months after the Swiss bank was rescued by crosstown rival UBS Group AG in March 2023, the Zurich and Basel cantons issued the first so-called tokenized bonds settled in Switzerland’s experimental digital currency. The Lugano city government followed suit shortly after.

With billions of dollars in trade at stake, China and the European Union have agreed to engage in talks to try to resolve an escalating dispute over tariffs, the New York Times reported. China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, and Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Union trade commissioner, will hold discussions on the European Union’s plan for tariffs on electric cars from China, the Chinese commerce ministry said late Saturday.

The Czech Republic's biggest steelworks Liberty Ostrava, part of Indian-British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta's business empire, was sent into bankruptcy by a court on Friday, AFP reported. Liberty Steel Group, part of Gupta's GFG Alliance, said earlier this month it had put its operations in the eastern Czech steel hub of Ostrava up for sale, citing "very demanding" conditions on the crisis-hit steel market. Liberty Ostrava has said its overdue debt had exceeded five billion koruna ($214 million) as it asked to be declared insolvent.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland said that it saw an increase in demand for its services last year with applications for insolvency solutions, other than bankruptcy, increasing by 20% compared to 2022, RTE.ie reported. In its annual report released Friday, the ISI said 72 people were adjudicated bankrupt in 2023, down from 105 in 2022. 99 people also exited bankruptcy last year. More than 1,560 new insolvency applications were made last year, while the ISE website reported a total of 87,791 visits.

A care home operator which once ranked among the largest in Britain is being put up for sale in a move expected to fetch about £300m, SkyNews reported. Four Seasons Health Care Group has appointed CBRE, the property agent, to oversee an auction in the coming months. The process will be launched after a protracted period in which Four Seasons was reshaped and slimmed-down through a string of asset sales. While far smaller than it was before the pandemic, the company still employs more than 4,000 people and operates more than 45 freehold care homes.

U.K. shoppers returned to retailers by more than expected in May, with sales recovering from the wet weather in the prior month, data showed Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Retail sales volumes rose 2.9% on month in May, flipping the 1.8% fall in April, according to the Office for National Statistics. Clothing retailers and furniture stores especially improved sales in the month, following April’s poor weather, the ONS said. Last month was the warmest May on record, while the month before that was the wettest April since 2012, U.K. weather agency the Met Office said.

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission is encouraging the UK and others to shorten the settlement time for currency trading to better align their markets with those in Asia and North America, Bloomberg News reported. The UK is debating a transition to next-day settlement, known as T+1, for securities transactions, with its Treasury calling for the shift by the end of 2027. But SEC Chair Gary Gensler is nudging the UK to go bigger by adding more asset classes for shorter settlement. The US, Canada, Mexico and other countries already pressed ahead.

Norway’s central bank held its key policy rate at 4.5% and reiterated guidance that the rate is likely to stay at that level for some time, as high wage growth is expected to keep inflation elevated, the Wall Street Journal reported. The central bank said on Thursday that while inflation has cooled, it remains above target, while surveys suggest that wages might rise more rapidly than previously anticipated. Policymakers worried that a cut in the key rate could cause inflation to remain above their target for longer than they would like.