Heti Valasz, a bastion of conservative journalism in Hungary, said it was closing operations after entering bankruptcy and the resignation of its editor, a former spokesman of Prime Minister Viktor Orban who had become critical of the populist leader, Bloomberg News reported. "Valasz.hu will cease providing content today," the publisher said in a statement on its website. The magazine became the latest in a string of publications which have shut down or switched to a pro-government stance in recent years.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV relocated two units at the heart of its accounting scandal to the U.K. as the retailer embarks on a new phase of recovery after reorganizing debt, Bloomberg News reported. Steinhoff Europe AG and Steinhoff Finance Holdings GmbH will move from Austria to Cheltenham, England -- where the South African company’s U.K. business is based. The supervisory boards of both units have been redrawn, with Steinhoff Chief Financial Officer Philip Dieperink and Commercial Director Louis du Preez holding positions at the Europe division.

Deutsche Bank AG had the credit rating of one type of debt cut by Moody’s Investors Service after a change in German law last month paved the way for a more senior kind of borrowing, Bloomberg News reported. In a move that was widely anticipated, Moody’s downgraded the bank’s senior non-preferred debt to Baa3 -- the lowest investment grade -- from Baa2 and reclassified the bonds as “junior senior” debt. The government is now less likely to support what are currently senior notes, the ratings firm said in a statement Friday.

The Italian Treasury has bought back nearly €1bn of short-dated government debt in a previously unannounced operation that appeared to be a bid to provide investors with liquidity in the teeth of a sharp market sell-off, the Financial Times reported. The move is the third time the government has bought back its debt since Italian bonds were first hit by negative investor sentiment in late May. That sell-off was triggered by the formation of a populist Eurosceptic coalition government.

Credit Suisse has picked Frankfurt as a key post-Brexit centre for its investment banking and capital markets business and has already moved several hundred million dollars of assets to support the new hub, the Financial Times reported. The corporate manoeuvres to create the new structure are revealed in the notes to Credit Suisse’s expectation-beating second-quarter earnings the bank reported on Tuesday. The Swiss group, one of the last big international banks to reveal its post-Brexit plans, is also moving 50 traders to Madrid, as reported earlier this week, and recently c

Businesses across the eurozone are becoming increasingly concerned about the prospect of a further slowdown in economic growth, with a poll by an influential German think-tank indicating that global trade tension is affecting confidence, the Financial Times reported. In its latest survey of the eurozone’s economic climate, the Munich-based Ifo institute said companies’ expectations were increasingly gloomy, reaching their lowest level in more than five years.

Billionaire Philip Day is in the early stages of a potential bid for British retailer House of Fraser to save it from collapse, Sky News reported on Thursday citing sources. The news comes a day after a rescue deal for House of Fraser was thrown into doubt after C.banner canceled planned fundraising for its deal to become a majority shareholder in the department store, Reuters reported. Day could yet decide not to table a formal proposal to acquire House of Fraser depending upon due diligence and discussions with the company, Sky News said citing one source.

Shares in French telecoms group Altice fell 13 per cent in early trade on Thursday, after it reported a fall in sales and warned that margins would be squeezed for the full year as it spent more to win customers. In the second quarter of the year total revenue fell 5 per cent to €3.5bn compared to the same period last year, which included a 6 per cent fall in its telecoms division and a 21 per cent drop in its support services division, the Financial Times reported.

Estate agents aren’t popular at the best of times, but Countrywide Plc, one of Britain’s biggest residential agents, really takes the biscuit. The massively discounted rights issue it announced Thursday will increase the share count by almost six times, a Bloomberg View reported. To nobody’s surprise, the stock plunged almost two-thirds, bringing the decline so far this year to about 85 percent. The share sale is fully underwritten and will raise about 129 million pounds ($169 million) net of fees — a bit more than the market value the previous day.

Profits almost doubled at Serco in the first six months of the year, with the outsourcer heralding the earnings growth as a sign its five-year strategy was yielding results despite “less than ideal” market conditions, the Financial Times reported. A drop-off in contracts sent revenues down almost 9 per cent in the half-year to June from the same period a year earlier to £1.4bn, exacerbated by currency headwinds, as acquisitions failed to offset contracts that came to an end.