Portugal's government has mandated state holding company Parpublica to pick two independent assessors to value airline TAP ahead of its privatisation, which could be launched in July, the finance minister said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The state owns 100% of TAP, which is currently restructuring under a Brussels-approved 3.2 billion euro ($3.5 billion) rescue plan, and the government is considering an outright or partial sale. "These two independent assessments are mandatory before launching the privatisation.

Scotland’s businesses are still suffering from a “Covid hangover” with new figures showing the number of firms becoming insolvent has reached an 11-year high, the Independent reported. Corporate insolvences rose to 1,132 in 2022-23, with this up by almost a third (32.6%) on the previous year, new figures from the Accountant in Bankruptcy showed. The 2022-23 total is nearly a fifth (19.4%) higher than pre-pandemic, with 948 insolvencies recorded in 2019-20 – with an expert warning a “further wave of insolvencies is inevitable” unless economic circumstances improve “drastically”.

Shares in Itsarm PLC fell Wednesday after the company said that the likelihood it would be able to continue for a period longer than three months before becoming insolvent was low, MarketWatch.com reported. Shares at 1109 GMT were down 0.15 pence, or 32%, at 0.33 pence. The London-listed womenswear fashion brand said the board determined it would be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders to put forward a formal proposal for a members' voluntary liquidation, or MVL.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a decree establishing temporary control of the Russian assets of two foreign energy firms, signaling Moscow could take similar action against other companies if need be. The decree - outlining possible retaliation if Russian assets abroad are seized - showed Moscow had already taken action against Uniper SE's Russian division and the assets of Finland's Fortum Oyj. The decree said Russia needed to take urgent measures to respond to unspecified actions from the United States and others it said were "unfriendly and contrary to international law".

Credit Suisse Group earned solid marks for crisis preparedness as recently as last year, underscoring how quickly the plunge in confidence blindsided regulators and investors before the bank’s near collapse, Bloomberg News reported. “It is clear that there are important lessons to be learned from the Credit Suisse crisis for future crisis preparations,” Urban Angehrn, chief executive officer of Swiss financial markets regulator Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma), said in a statement on Wednesday (Apr 26). The regulator will “contribute to this objective”, he said.

The UK received a record level of demand for debt that acts as protection against inflation, with concerns mounting that rising prices aren’t slowing down despite the Bank of England’s interest rate hikes, Bloomberg News reported. The £46 billion ($57 billion) order book for £4.5 billion of so-called inflation-linked notes sold on Wednesday was far bigger than any previous UK sale of similar debt tracked by Bloomberg. Data last week showed consumer prices in Britain accelerated 10.1% from a year ago, driven by the strongest increase in food costs in more than four decades.

Creditors contesting Adler Group SA’s €6 billion ($6.6 billion) debt restructuring were denied permission to appeal, helping the embattled real estate firm move ahead with the plan, Bloomberg News reported. A judge at the High Court in London said Tuesday the tribunal wasn’t convinced by any of the reasons for permission to appeal. The decision follows a ruling at the same court last week allowing Adler to extend maturities of bonds due next year and borrow around €900 million, despite opposition from some of its creditors including DWS Group and Strategic Value Partners.

The Ukrainian government will provide state guarantees to revitalise its export credit agency, a move designed to help domestic exporters and lift the economy after 14 months of war, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Before Russia's full-scale invasion in February last year, Ukraine's economy was export-led, but Moscow's war in Ukraine has disrupted supply chains and logistics. "We are intensifying the work of the export credit agency. We want as many Ukrainian businesses as possible to export their products abroad," Shmyhal told a government meeting.

Across eastern Europe, the financial toll of Vladimir Putin’s 14-month-old war on Ukraine is piling up. Energy subsidies are being doled out, armies built up and refugees housed, schooled and fed, Bloomberg News reported. To help pay those bills, Ukraine’s neighbors are tapping international debt markets like never before. Governments in eastern Europe have borrowed nearly $32 billion already this year, triple the amount from the same period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

UBS said on Tuesday it had set aside more money to draw a line under its involvement in toxic U.S. mortgages, halving its first-quarter profit as the bank girds itself for the "hard" task of swallowing fallen rival Credit Suisse, Reuters reported. Sergio Ermotti, brought back as UBS chief executive to steer the takeover, said it aims to close the deal with fellow Zurich-based bank Credit Suisse by May but warned that it could take four years for a full integration. "There is much to do and there will difficult decisions to be made in the coming months," he said during a call with analysts.