The recent near-death experience of Patisserie Valerie and collapse of Conviviality, the bargain booze business, might make Chancellor Phil Hammond think again about all those rich tax breaks attached to shares on Aim, London’s junior market. Both were Aim darlings until Conviviality found a £30m unpaid tax bill, forcing it into administration in March, and Patisserie Valerie uncovered a similar-sized hole in its accounts this month, the Financial Times reported in a commentary.

Italian bonds and stocks dropped for a third day after the European Union ramped up criticism of the populist government’s budget draft, Bloomberg News reported. The nation’s 10-year yield spread over Germany, a key barometer for investor risk, touched the highest in more than five years following a letter from the European Commission to Rome that said its spending plans were excessive. The body still needs to give its official verdict on the budget, while S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service could choose to cut the nation’s credit ranking before the end of the month.

The International Monetary Fund on Friday announced it had reached preliminary agreement on a new $3.9bn assistance package for Ukraine, whose government hours earlier took the politically unpopular decision of meeting a key condition of the fund by raising household gas tariffs by 23.5 per cent, the Financial Times reported. The new 14-month programme has yet to be approved by the IMF’s executive board.

The committee of creditors tasked with the resolution process of Essar Steel Ltd. has picked ArcelorMittal as H1 Resolution Applicant, or preferred bidder, for the insolvent asset, Bloomberg Quint reported. The final bid price will be negotiated over the weeks to come, the Luxembourg-based company said in a statement. This comes two weeks after the Supreme Court directed both Numetal Mauritius and ArcelorMittal to pay up past debts to be eligible to bid for insolvent Essar Steel Ltd. Of the two, only one met the Supreme Court directive—ArcelorMittal.

For a moment last weekend, hearts were suddenly aflutter that – out of nowhere – a deal to secure the United Kingdom’s orderly exit from the European Union was in the offing, The Irish Times reported. UK Brexit secretary Dominic Raab was said to be “dashing” to Brussels for face-to-face talks with the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier, while EU ambassadors were summoned to a meeting that one report suggested was to get early sight of a deal. But it was just a mirage.

The leaders of Italy’s populist coalition government said they had no intention of leaving the euro but will stick with spending plans that have triggered both a credit rating downgrade and sharp criticism from Brussels, the Financial Times reported. Both Luigi Di Maio, leader of the anti-establishment Five Star party, and his coalition partner Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigration League party, said they remained committed to Italy staying within the single currency.

A eurozone government set on a collision course with the EU over budget deficit targets. Borrowing costs rising amid market jitters over plans to overturn austerity. A vulnerable banking sector and one of Europe’s highest public debt burdens. Italy fits the description. But this was Portugal less than three years ago, soon after a minority Socialist government came to power vowing to “turn the page on austerity” with support from hardline communists and the anti-establishment left, the Financial Times reported. Today, the contrasts could hardly be sharper.

Investor advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has reversed its initial advice to Aryzta shareholders to vote down the company’s planned €800 million capital raise, while two other proxy advisors have come out in favour of the plan, the Irish Times reported. Following discussions with management and the food group’s largest shareholder Cobas, which is opposing the deal, ISS said it was now advising investors to support the rights issue, which will be put

French tyre maker Michelin warned of declining sales in Europe and China in the second half of the year, dragging down shares of its competitors in the US and Europe, the Irish Times reported. Demand for Michelin’s products fell in Western Europe because of new emissions-testing standards that have dented car sales, and dropped off in China as its auto market slumped, the company, based in Clermont Ferrand, France, said Thursday. “Given the significant decline in the passenger-car and light-truck and truck-tyre markets late in the third quarter and the further weakness ex

Increasing competitive pressures inside and outside Europe could lead to additional airline restructurings and bankruptcies, the German government said in a response to a parliamentary query that was published on Thursday by the Handelsblatt newspaper. The government did not comment on whether it would offer other airlines help such as the 150 million euro bridging credit it provided to Air Berlin, Germany's second largest airline, when it ran into trouble last year, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.