In the latest of a series of cross-border merger dramas, France’s BPCE is acquiring a 75% stake in Portugal’s Novo Banco from US private equity firm Lone Star, Euronews.com reported. The offer values the lender at €6.4bn, making the deal one of Europe’s largest banking transactions in recent years. It also reflects a recent wave of consolidation interest within the sector. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to the necessary approvals from regulators and shareholders.

A UK car charging company is to be rescued by French energy giant EDF, after a downturn in demand for electric vehicles (EVs) left it struggling to survive. On Thursday, EDF said that it would buy Pod Point in a cut-price deal to save the British company, the Telegraph reported. The energy giant said a takeover was the “only realistic prospect” of allowing Pod Point to keep operating. Pod Point, which has chargers available at places such as Tesco and McDonald’s, is the third-largest charging group in the UK, operating 5,600 fuelling stations, according to Zapmap.

Energy costs have pushed Active Nation into liquidation, despite the charity reporting the strongest trading period in years ,Health Club Management reported. Annette Reeve of Beesley Corporate Recovery was appointed by the company's creditors on 28 May. Former CEO, Stuart Martin, has told HCM the cost of energy became completely unmanageable and the support systems that should have helped – including Sport England’s Swimming Pool Support Fund – didn’t deliver. "It’s heartbreaking, because it wasn’t the quality of our work, our people, or our vision that failed," he says.

Joint provisional liquidators have been appointed by the Irish High Court to Dublin company Frank&Bear Limited, stated to be involved in a number of significant digital marketing campaigns in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the United States, the Irish Times reported. Barrister Eoin Coffey told Mr Justice David Holland that the company, which employs 12 people, was unable to meet its debts and that two of its three directors were engaged in promoting a petition through the courts for the winding up of the firm.

The U.K. economy contracted more than expected in April as President Trump’s evolving trade policy brought a halt to a surprising surge in activity, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product was 0.3% lower than a month earlier, the country’s Office for National Statistics said Thursday, marking the deepest contraction in the British economy in 18 months.

The British government announced on Wednesday hundreds of billions of pounds in spending on defense, health care and investment in infrastructure and housing, as it laid out its economic priorities for the next few years, the New York Times reported. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the Exchequer, presented a breakdown of the public finances in Parliament, detailing how much money each government department will have to spend until 2029, around the time of the next general election. It brings to an end months of tense negotiations between Ms.

The German economy is expected to grow this year following two consecutive years of contraction, four economic institutes said on Thursday, raising their forecasts for 2025 and 2026, Reuters reported. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) raised its forecast to 0.3% growth from the stagnation it had previously envisaged due to a better-than-expected first quarter, when the economy grew by 0.4%. "The German economy is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel," the economists said in their new forecasts.

Romania’s competition authority said it has approved the notified acquisition of local wood processing company ZG Timber Sebes by Austrian wood-based panel manufacturer Kronospan Holdings, SeeNews.com reported. The Competition Council found no significant concerns regarding the effect of the transaction on competition within the Romanian market, it said in a statement on Friday. ZG Timber Sebes produces timber and pellets at a plant in the central city of Sebes, Alba county.

The European Central Bank’s most recent rate cut will help ensure that inflation doesn’t settle below its 2% target, Chief Economist Philip Lane said on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ECB last week lowered its key interest rate for the eighth time since June 2024 after figures showed the annual rate of inflation fell to 1.9% in May.