Europe

Britain's economy recorded a second quarter of strong growth as it recovered from last year's shallow recession but it lost momentum as it entered the second half of 2024, suggesting the Bank of England remains on course to cut interest rates again, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product grew 0.6% in the second quarter of 2024 after a 0.7% expansion in the first quarter which was the fastest in more than two years, the Office for National Statistics said.

Despite all its recent freight growth and international expansion plans, Ukrainian Railways now finds itself in a problematic situation, railtech.com reported. The Ukrainian operator says that it is facing potential bankruptcy, after a number of companies have succeeded in annulling a 2021 rail tariff hike via a Kyiv court. Ukrainian Railways announces that it is now in troubled waters, according to a post on its Telegram channel. “Private companies using the courts are trying to reduce tariffs for themselves, which will cause the bankruptcy and shutdown of Ukrainian Railways,” it says.

A former investment firm director has been handed stringent bankruptcy restrictions extended to the maximum of 15 years “to prevent him causing further harm to the public,” the U.K.’s Insolvency Service said in a statement on 12 August, the International Adviser reported. Derby-based Andrew Paul Bird defrauded 13 different parties in an investment scam between 2011 and 2016. The Official Receiver discovered he had knowingly misled investors and exposed them to the risk of losing money for his personal gain, the statement said.

British consumer price inflation increased for the first time this year in July, official figures showed on Wednesday, but the rise was smaller than expected as services prices — closely watched by the Bank of England — rose less rapidly, Reuters reported. The annual rate of consumer price inflation increased to 2.2% after two months at the Bank of England's 2% target, the Office for National Statistics said, coming in slightly below the median 2.3% forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. Sterling fell sharply against the U.S.

UBS on Tuesday agreed to sell Credit Suisse's U.S. mortgage servicing business, UBS Chief Financial Officer Todd Tuckner said on Wednesday, without naming the buyer, Reuters reported. Tuckner, who was speaking on a call with analysts following publication of the bank's latest results, said the transaction was expected to close in the first quarter of next year. UBS executives declined to name the buyer on a media call later, though CEO Sergio Ermotti said it was a consortium. "That's the only thing we can say, and it's up to them to communicate," he added.

The owner of the beauty brand Avon in the U.K., Europe and Latin America has filed for bankruptcy as it tries to off-load more than $1bn of debt, including millions of dollars in liabilities linked to lawsuits alleging that talc in its products caused cancer, The Guardian reported. Avon Products Inc., a subsidiary of Brazil’s Natura, which bought Avon’s non-North American trading businesses in 2020, has filed for chapter 11, the American version of administration. API said that the process would allow it to address its debt obligations in an “orderly manner”.

SG Investments, America, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of German-based manufacturer Dürkopp Adler (DA), has acquired ICON Aircraft assets — the result of a chapter 11 § 363 sale in ICON’s chapter 11 case filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, according to a Procopio press release. Procopio Restructuring and Bankruptcy Partner William Smelko represented DA in the transaction with the assistance of Procopio’s Asia Pacific team. Local Delaware Counsel Evan Miller of Saul, Ewing also assisted SG in acquiring the assets.

Sweden’s economy has, in many ways, suffered from the same tribulations as the rest of Europe: recent bouts of crushing inflation and recession, and now the prospect of meager growth in a world split by geopolitical and economic conflict. Nevertheless, the Nordic country has a roster of high-tech entrepreneurs that is the envy of its neighbors, according to a New York Times analysis. Spotify and Skype are globally recognized brand names.

As Sir Keir Starmer seeks to deliver economic growth, the worklessness crisis he inherited from Rishi Sunak is getting markedly worse, The Telegraph reported. Around 9.5m people of working age are neither in work nor looking for work – they are economically inactive, in the parlance of the Office for National Statistics. That is terrible news for the Prime Minister, who will struggle to drive up GDP if so many of the nation’s adults are not even interested in working. The figures also show the causes of another crisis: migration levels.

In a story that reads like the script of a Hollywood film, one of the world’s most famous musicians, Canadian rapper Drake, emerged as the unlikely hero for an Italian club on the brink of financial collapse, World Soccer Talk reported. Venezia, a club steeped in history but battling financial turmoil, found an unexpected lifeline in Drake. His intervention was crucial in saving the club from bankruptcy and ensuring its survival. The Winged Lions, based in the iconic city of Venice, experienced a rollercoaster ride in recent years.