Irish financier Paul Coulson’s Ardagh Group unveiled plans to refinance almost $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion) of debt due in two years’ time as the glass and metal containers manufacturer lays the ground for an initial public offering in the coming months, the Irish Times reported. The company said on Thursday it was launching the sale of $1 billion of senior bonds that will mature in 2025.

Tough new banking rules will increase borrowing costs for the Republic’s aircraft leasing industry, a conference heard on Thursday, the Irish Times reported. Proposed Basel IV reforms of the rules governing how banks manage their risks are likely to make it more expensive for lenders to provide cash for assets such as aircraft and ships. In a discussion at the Global Airfinance Conference in Dublin, Stephan Sayre, managing director of aviation investment management at DVB Bank, said it was too early to assess the exact impact of the proposed change.

Finding a resolution to the problem of unsustainable losses at Bus Éireann is a matter for management and trade unions, Minister for Transport Shane Ross has indicated, the Irish Times reported. He told the Dáil that Bus Éireann was losing some €6 million a year, and this was not as a result of the State’s subvention to the company but rather due to losses being run up by its commercial Expressway arm, which faces intense competition from private operators.

Failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing is pressing ahead with a stock market listing of its domestic arm Arion, people close to the matter said, a key step in Iceland's rehabilitation in the global financial system, Reuters reported. Kaupthing, once a major international bank, went into administration and its domestic operations were separated into Arion Bank in 2009. Iceland became the first western European country in more than three decades to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund.

Bus Eireann told staff about a series of large cuts to payments and allowances and a reduction in temporary staff today as it seeks to avoid insolvency, The Irish Mirror reported. The company said that if the programme of cuts are implemented fully it would be ready to offer staff an average pay rise of 2% a year over four years. The National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) responded to the offer and described the proposed pay increase, which they calculated at between 1% and 3%, as “insulting”.

Germany’s largest bank said on Wednesday that it would “substantially limit” bonuses for the 2016 financial year. The announcement comes after it agreed in December to pay $7.2 billion to resolve an investigation by American authorities into its sale of toxic mortgage securities, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. Concerns about the potential size of the settlement have weighed heavily on the bank’s stock price and its reputation.

The European Central Bank bought a record-breaking €24.7 billion worth of debt last week, taking advantage of a bumper supply of bank bonds to boost its economic stimulus programme. Last week’s figure is the highest since the ECB started flooding the euro zone with cash in 2014, in a bid to revive inflation and growth by lowering the cost of borrowing, the Irish Times reported. The jump in purchases, which partly compensates for thin ECB buying in December, was partly driven by covered bonds, a form of bank debt backed by mortgages or public-sector loans.

When Alexei Kudrin was tasked last year with drawing up a new economic strategy for Russia, there were good reasons for the country’s leadership to countenance previously unpalatable reforms, the Financial Times reported. With the crash in oil prices, the effects of sanctions and the fall in the rouble eroding real incomes and squeezing public finances, there was a genuine fear of protest from a middle class accustomed to greater comfort.

Spanish police arrested prominent Dutch corporate lawyer Peter Wakkie at Madrid airport on Monday in an investigation into the insolvency of Russian-Spanish telecom firm ZED+, a judicial source said, Reuters reported. A spokesman for Wakkie, who is ZED+'s interim manager, said he could not immediately comment on the arrest at Barajas Airport after a flight from the Netherlands, where the company is domiciled.

Although Britain’s economy has so far not suffered the economic blowback that many predicted would follow the vote in a referendum last year to quit the bloc, British companies that import or export goods and services are anxiously assessing the potential costs of departure, the International New York Times reported. Complicating matters is continuing uncertainty over the terms of departure that the government wants to negotiate.