In mid-March, shares in ViacomCBS Inc. and Discovery Inc. rocketed skyward. That was great news for Bill Hwang. His firm, Archegos Capital Management, had borrowed billions from Credit Suisse Group AG to make wagers on a handful of stocks, including the entertainment companies, according to a Wall Street Journal reported. As is standard practice, Archegos had handed over cash to Credit Suisse to secure its bets. With the stocks more than doubling since the start of the year, Archegos asked for some of that money back, and it was credited.

The auditor of Greensill Capital’s German bank withdrew its certifications of the failed lender’s 2019 annual accounts after allegations of irregularities, Bloomberg News reported. Ebner Stolz, a Stuttgart, Germany-based auditing firm, informed the bank’s insolvency administrator on April 23 about the step, according to a filing published on Friday in Germany’s Bundesanzeiger, the federal gazette for company disclosures. Greensill Bank was shuttered by German financial regulator BaFin in March as the lender’s parent company, founded by Lex Greensill, collapsed.

Britain has clinched post-Brexit trade agreements with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein as it seeks to forge new global trading relationships after leaving the European Union, Reuters reported. The three nations, which are part of the European Economic Area allowing them access to the single market, have relied on temporary trade arrangements with Britain since the end of a Brexit transition period on Dec. 31.

Invesco Ltd. and Searchlight Capital Partners LP are lobbying creditors of Mediapro to back a restructuring deal enabling them to take a stake in the producer of top-flight Spanish soccer broadcasts left reeling by the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The investment firms sent a restructuring proposal to lenders to Mediapro including Cairn Capital Ltd. and Carlyle Group, on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter.

Amigo has fuelled fears among investors that it will fall into insolvency by saying it will not challenge a High Court decision to block its plan to cut compensation payments to customers who were mis-sold loans, the London Times reported. Shares in the guarantor lender fell by as much as 15.6 per cent yesterday after it said that it had decided against pursuing an appeal against last week’s judgment from Mr Justice Miles.

European Union government and parliament negotiators reached a deal on Tuesday on rules that will force large multinational companies to disclose how much revenue and tax they pay in the 27-nation bloc and how much in countries considered tax havens by the EU, Reuters reported. The new law, proposed by the European Commission in 2016, is part of the EU's efforts to fight tax avoidance by large international companies at a time when the EU badly needs cash to finance an economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bank lenders are seeking to cut their exposure to one of the world’s largest aircraft lessors before a moratorium on debt payment ends next month, Bloomberg News reported. An unnamed lender to a unit of Nordic Aviation Capital AS is seeking to sell a $50-million portion of a credit facility this week. The seller may dispose of the debt, which is secured by assets held in NAC Aviation 29 DAC, at roughly a 30% discount to face value, they said. A representative for Nordic Aviation declined to comment on the potential loan sale.

European budget airline Wizz Air warned of further losses in its current financial year, amid a slower-than-expected recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. The ultra-low cost carrier faces another "transition year" as travel curbs linger on, Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi said on Wednesday, as the company posted a 576 million euro ($703 million) net loss for the 12 months ended March 31. "Unless we see an accelerated and permanent lifting of restrictions we expect a reported net loss in full-year 2022," Varadi said.

France will set up a new 3 billion euro ($3.67 billion) fund to support mid-sized and large companies as they emerge from the coronavirus crisis, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The fund aims to help firms on a case-by-case basis with loans or equity injections so that businesses that were viable before the pandemic but now have strained balance sheets can get back on their feet. "The aim is not to dilute shareholders, it's not the state's role to become French companies' main shareholder," Le Maire told a news conference.