The U.K. faces three potentially catastrophic risks to its public finances, the government’s budget watchdog said, underlining the challenge confronting Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to restore fiscal restraint, Bloomberg News reported. Unfunded pressures on government departments total some 30 billion pounds ($42 billion) over the next three years as a result of the pandemic, the Office for Budget Responsibility said on Tuesday in its biennial Fiscal Risks Report. The OBR also flagged U.K.
Resources Per Country
- Albania
- Austria
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guernsey
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Italy
- Jersey
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
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The court in Buzău admitted at the beginning of this month the request for insolvency filed for Getica 95, the biggest independent electricity trader, a business of RON 1.5 bln (EUR 300 mln) owned by the businessman Viorel Tudose, Romania-Insider.com reported. The insolvency request was filed by creditors and not the company itself - as Tudose announced in June. Tudose said at that time that the company faces cash flow and not profitability problems and that all contracts with the end-users will be observed.
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Apollo Global Management Inc. said Monday that it is considering making a bid for U.K. grocery chain Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC, setting up a potential three-way bidding war with SoftBank Group Corp.’s Fortress Investment Group LLC and U.S. private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the Wall Street Journal reported. New York-based Apollo said that it hasn’t yet approached the board of the British grocer and there can be no certainty that any offer will be made.
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The European Union proposed a swathe of new rules to bring the world of finance in line with its ambitious goal to make the region carbon neutral by the middle of the century, Bloomberg News reported. The European Commission wants tighter measures on banks and credit rating agencies to better reflect the risks climate change poses to the financial system. The bloc also set out its green bond standard, a voluntary rulebook that issuers of sustainable debt will have to abide by should they want the EU stamp of approval.
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After more than a year of home working, property investors are betting that demand for office space in Europe will rise as COVID-19 vaccinations are rolled out and people return to work, Reuters reported. Global office real estate leasing volumes dropped 31% in the first quarter compared with a year ago, according to real estate broker JLL, although Europe proved more resilient than the United States. "The perception that the office is over is complete nonsense," said Keith Breslauer, managing partner of European property investor Patron Capital.
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New rules proposed by the European Commission could introduce a cap on interest rates for consumers and restrict the cost of credit charged by moneylenders, the Irish Times reported. The move comes days after Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said the Government was planning to “gradually” lower the current interest rate cap on licensed moneylenders’ loans.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said England was on track to lift almost all Covid-19 restrictions as planned on July 19, even as the highly transmissible Delta variant of coronavirus drives a new surge in infections, the Wall Street Journal reported. The move puts the U.K. in the vanguard of countries betting that vaccines will provide a durable route back to normalcy, despite the circulation of dangerous new variants. Mr.
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A co-founder of the collapsed Bula mine in County Meath has lost a Supreme Court appeal aimed at permitting him to challenge a decision adjudicating him bankrupt over non-payment of a €4.8 million legal costs debt, the Irish Times reported. The High Court granted a petition in March 2018 adjudicating Michael Wymes and another co-founder of Bula, Richard Wood, bankrupt. The two, with Tom Roche senior, established Bula in 1971 to buy a zinc and lead mine near Navan, but it collapsed with substantial debts some years later.
The Dambovita county court has launched bankruptcy proceedings against Romanian special steel mill Cos Targoviste, formerly known as Mechel Targoviste, SeeNews reported. The court rejected the reorganisation plan submitted by Alpha Financial, one of the steel mill's creditors, a statement filed on Wednesday by Cos Targovishte with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, showed. Cos Targoviste said that it will appeal the court decision. As a result of the start of bankruptcy proceedings, the company's shares were suspended from trading on the main segment of the BVB on Thursday.
Global M&A activity broke records for a second consecutive quarter this year as companies continued to borrow cheaply and spend their cash reserves on transformative deals to reposition themselves for the post-COVID world, Reuters reported. Deals worth $1.5 trillion were announced in the three months to June 30, more than any second quarter on record and up 13% from the record first quarter of the year despite activity among blank-check firms slowed down.