The European Central Bank said it had agreed to include Deutsche Bank’s sale of its stake in lender Hua Xia in stress test results earlier this year after Chinese authorities gave assurances the deal would be approved, the Irish Times reported. The official cut-off point for transactions to be included in the health checks of Europe’s banks was the end of 2015. Yet, while Deutsche Bank announced the deal at the end of December, China’s financial authorities had still not approved it when the stress tests were completed in July. They finally did so last week.

The European Central Bank’s top supervisor said “good bankruptcy laws” across Europe are imperative to solving the bloc’s problem of nonperforming loans, The Wall Street Journal reported. Speaking in front of the European Parliament on Wednesday, Daniele Nouy said she “put a lot of hope” in work being carried out by the EU to harmonize bankruptcy laws to provide clarity for investors seeking to buy nonperforming corporate debt and to build a strong capital markets union. “We need laws at the EU level, and courts and judges to implement those laws,” said Ms. Nouy.

Siccar Point Energy, a company backed by Blackstone, the US private equity group, has agreed to pay up to $1 billion for the North Sea assets of Austria’s OMV, the Irish Times reported. It marks the biggest acquisition in the UK offshore energy industry since crude prices crashed two years ago and highlights the interest of private equity investors in the North Sea as cash-strapped oil companies shed assets.

The Irish government on Wednesday filed an appeal seeking to stop efforts by European authorities to force Apple to pay the country $14.3 billion to cover what antitrust officials say are unpaid taxes, the International New York Times reported. Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s competition chief, ordered Apple in August to pay the amount, alleging the company had received preferential tax rulings from the Irish government that gave Apple an unfair advantage over rivals. Both Ireland and Apple deny any wrongdoing.

Scotland called for more clarity on Britain's Brexit strategy on Wednesday, offering a critical response to the British government's efforts to hold together a fraying United Kingdom as it prepares to leave the European Union, Reuters reported. The London-based British government began a series of meetings with Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolved administrations designed to reassure them that they will have a say in shaping the country's future ties with the EU.

Romanian state-owned energy complex Complexul Energetic Hunedoara will exit insolvency after the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal decided yesterday to cancel the decision of the Hunedoara Court from June, which approved the company’s insolvency, Romania-Insider.com reported. The decision of the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal is final. The insolvency house GMC SPRL Craiova, which has managed the energy complex since June, will receive a fixed amount of RON 32,000 (EUR 7,100) for its work in the last three months.

American Apparel placed its U.K. outlets into the equivalent of chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday, as the troubled retailer looks for a buyer for its brand less than year after it exited bankruptcy in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported. Administrators from U.K.-based restructuring firm KPMG said American Apparel’s 13 stores were placed in administration, a process similar to chapter 11 in the U.S. The American Apparel brand and its U.S. business are being sold. The U.K.

Premier Oil has been forced to deny fresh doubts over its heavily delayed $2.6bn (£2.08bn) debt restructuring after the company’s share price plunged by almost 17pc amid fears its lenders are looking to abandon the deal. The North Sea’s largest independent oil company acted to calm the rising market jitters by assuring investors that none of its senior lenders have left the lender syndicate, or are proposing to exit talks at this time.

Rosneftegaz, the state holding company that controls Russian oil major Rosneft, is considering helping Rosneft finance the buyback of some of its shares in Rosneft, three sources with knowledge of the discussions said, Reuters reported. The Russian state is preparing to sell a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft, the biggest Russian oil producer and one of the largest in the world, as part of a privatization scheme intended to plug holes in the budget this year.

A squeeze in the number of buy-to-let properties available in the Irish property market is likely to happen as many interest-only arrangements end and borrowers become liable for substantially higher repayments, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV) has warned. In a submission to the Department of Housing, the group’s chief executive, Pat Davitt, said many investors are now reaching the end of their 10-year interest-only period and will become liable for capital repayments in addition to interest, the Irish Times reported.