B&M has sealed a deal to buy up to 51 Wilko stores from administrators following the collapse of the rival discount chain, PA Media reported. Wilko fell into administration last month, with insolvency experts from PwC spending recent weeks seeking to hammer out a rescue deal for the historic retailer. Administrators have held talks with a raft of suitors, including HMV owner Doug Putman, in order to save Wilko’s 400 stores and 12,500 jobs. On Tuesday, B&M European Value Retail said it has agreed to acquire up to 51 Wilko sites from the administrators in a deal worth up to £13 million.

Credit Suisse clients withdrawing their money as the bank headed for collapse likely accounts for the first significant balance sheet contraction in a decade for all banks in Switzerland, a report by the Swiss Bankers Association on Tuesday said, Reuters reported. In Switzerland, the balance sheet of banks fell 6.9% to 3,339.7 billion Swiss francs ($3.76 trillion) in 2022, said the Banking Barometer, an annual report on banking industry trends. "The downturn among the big banks was especially large and probably driven mainly by shifts in customer funds at Credit Suisse," the report said.

Consumer expectations for euro-area inflation inched up in July, remaining above the European Central Bank’s 2% target as officials ponder whether to hike or hold interest rates next week, Bloomberg News reported. Expectations for the next 12 months failed to slow, staying at 3.4%, the ECB said Tuesday in its monthly survey. For three years ahead, they rose to 2.4% from 2.3%. The results are the last major piece of price data before a Sept. 14 announcement that President Christine Lagarde has said will either extend or pause the ECB’s unprecedented campaign of monetary tightening.

Italy is preparing to cancel its controversial membership in China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, engaging in an elaborate diplomatic dance to avoid angering Beijing and triggering retaliation against Italian businesses, the Wall Street Journal reported. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani held talks in Beijing on Sunday and Monday to facilitate as smooth an exit as possible from the initiative while laying the groundwork for alternative economic deals with China.

The number of Swedish companies going out of business reached the highest level since at least 1999, with several large builders going bankrupt as construction of new homes is screeching to a halt, Bloomberg News reported. As the Swedish economy is showing signs of buckling under the pressure of elevated inflation and rising interest rates, bankruptcies increased by 38% in August, according to a monthly release from Creditsafe.

VanMoof, the Dutch e-bike maker that gained a zealous following but declared bankruptcy last month, has been acquired by Lavoie, an upscale electric scooter company, the firms announced on Thursday, the New York Times reported. Riders of the expensive and technologically advanced VanMoof bikes were left in limbo by the company’s bankruptcy, because the machines are built from proprietary parts that only the company made and many of the bikes’ functions are linked to a smartphone app that runs on the company’s servers.

Switzerland was urged to prepare properly for the failure of a big bank on Friday by a group of experts in the wake of the collapse of Credit Suisse, but their report to government skirted radical reform some say is needed, Reuters reported. UBS Group emerged as Switzerland’s single largest bank earlier this year after the government hastily arranged and partly bankrolled its takeover of stricken Credit Suisse to prevent that bank's collapse.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition is considering selling minority stakes in selected state-owned companies to boost Italy’s public finances, Bloomberg News reported. Government ministers are evaluating the disposal of some assets, including a stake in the state railway, while still retaining control over the businesses, according to people familiar with the discussions, Bloomberg News reported.

A solicitor at a south Dublin law firm which had its accounts frozen by the High Court earlier this year has secured an order for statutory redundancy worth up to €6,400 against the practice, the Irish Times reported. Amanda Malone told the Workplace Relations Commission in April this year that her workplace had shut down on February 22nd this year, when she was out on sick leave. Ms.

German inflation fell only slightly in August, data showed on Wednesday, but economists expect the downward trend in headline inflation to gain pace in the coming months, Reuters reported. Consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other European Union countries, increased by 6.4% on the year this month, according to preliminary data from the federal statistics office. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast harmonised annual inflation of 6.3% after a reading of 6.5% in July.