Like a lot of explosive financial scandals, the story of Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill could fairly be described as a simple proposition that spun completely out of control, the New York Times reported. Quinn was an Irish oil-and-gas man with warm eyes and a mustache; Cahill was his longtime partner, an accountant by training. The two had been working in Nigeria since the 1970s, doing small-time deals in the energy and defense sectors, like fixing tanks and siting oil wells. But in the mid-2000s, they spied a bigger opportunity.

Bulgarian insurance group Eurohold announced that it filed a lawsuit against Romania at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of what it claims to be the illegal bankruptcy of local subsidiary Euroins, Romania-Insider.com reported. Moreover, it also reconfirmed that it is preparing an arbitration request for the amount of over EUR 500 million at an international court in the U.S. At the same time, Eurohold claimed that the lawsuit in Romania against ASF’s decision to withdraw Euroins’ operating license has recently started.

A luxury townhouse in London’s exclusive Kensington district is expected to sell for about $34 million (£27 million) as part of bankruptcy proceedings, Bloomberg News reported. The property, a short walk from Hyde Park, is registered to Khalifa Bin Butti Omeir Al Muhairi — an Emirati former vice-chairman of NMC Health Plc. The once London-listed hospital operator collapsed into administration in 2020 following allegations of fraud, triggering a series of investigations and lawsuits. Al Muhairi filed for bankruptcy in an Abu Dhabi court a year later.

René Benko was a high school dropout and convicted criminal. But by 2018, he was at the pinnacle of global real estate. His company, Signa Holding, launched a glassy, J-shaped skyscraper on the banks of the River Elbe in Hamburg, Germany. The design of the 800-foot tower resembled a chart showing exponential growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hamburg’s mayor, the future German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, lauded Signa’s good reputation with banks when the city picked the developer to build the tower. “Signa is financially strong,” he said. It wasn’t.

The French economy is set to end a six-month phase of stagnation and expand by 0.1% to 0.2% in the first quarter, the country's central bank said on Thursday as it released its monthly business survey, Reuters reported. "Declines in the construction and energy sectors were offset by a rise in value added in industry, while services remained stable", the Bank of France said. It also updated the growth rate measured during the fourth quarter of 2023, saying the economy had flatlined. It had previously given a 0.2% growth estimate.

A council is warning it could be at risk of bankruptcy as £3m of government funding for port checks is withdrawn. Dover District Council (DCC) is responsible for checking food for diseases as it enters the UK, including African swine fever, BBC.com reported. The authority will now have to plug the funding gap, which it warns will "severely deplete" council reserves.

For German banks at the forefront of a spreading US commercial property downturn, covered bonds and deposits can offer a lifeline, according to Barclays Plc analysts, Bloomberg News reported. Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG and Aareal Bank AG have seen their unsecured borrowing costs grind higher as investors scrutinize their loan books for bad US loans. That makes it critical that they continue to be able to rely on more steady sources of funding. Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, known as PBB, said Wednesday that it had increased loan-loss provisions, noting “persistent weakness” in real estate.

The Czech Republic’s central bank cut its key interest rate for the second straight time Thursday in an effort to help the struggling economy, the Associated Press reported. The cut by a half-percentage point brought the interest rate down to 6.25%. The bank also trimmed borrowing costs by a quarter-point on Dec. 21, which marked the first cut since June 22, 2022. Between 2021 and 2022, the bank unleashed a series of rate hikes to try to combat soaring inflation. The last hike of 1.25 percentage points took the rate to 7%, the highest level since early 1999.

The collapse of the Signa retail and real estate group is so dire that even companies hired to liquidate an insolvent unit will have to stand in line to recoup their money, Bloomberg News reported. The bankruptcy administrator for Signa Real Estate Management GmbH said assets were insufficient to pay for the clean-up, triggering a special clause under Austrian insolvency law, according to a notice to the Vienna Commercial Court.

Distressed Chinese developer Guangzhou R&F Properties plans to sell a property project in London by asking to receive some of its dollar bonds and just HK$1 (S$0.17) of cash, the Business Times reported. The defaulted builder signed a letter of intent to sell the holding company of Market Towers at 1 Nine Elms Lane, according to a filing late Tuesday (Feb 6) in Hong Kong. The mixed-used development is valued at £1.34 billion (S$2.27 billion) and includes 437 residential units and a hotel, it said.