Headlines

Mediobanca shareholders rejected a roughly €7bn proposal to acquire wealth manager Banca Generali in a pivotal vote on Thursday, Reuters reported. The Milanese bank said that 35% of investors accepted the proposal, just shy of the 50% plus one vote needed to pass. 32% of investors abstained, while 10% rejected the proposal. The outcome could threaten Mediobanca’s independence as the bank seeks to fend off a takeover by Italian competitor Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).

The number of companies going bust across England and Wales remained elevated last month, new data shows, as pressures intensify for firms grappling with higher costs, Reuters reported. Official data from the Insolvency Service showed there were 2,081 company insolvencies in July, edging up by 1% compared with June. The number of compulsory liquidations was slightly higher than in June and up 11% compared with the same month in 2024. Compulsory liquidations happen when a company is forced to close when it cannot pay money owed to creditors.

The Government is poised to take over operations at Britain’s third largest steelworks, aiming to save 1,500 jobs at Sanjeev Gupta’s Rotherham-based factory, The Telegraph reported. The High Court heard on Wednesday that the Government’s official receiver is ready to step in as administrator if Mr Gupta is unable to finalise a rescue deal involving £75m from US giant BlackRock.

U.K. inflation climbed to an 18-month high on the back of surging food, transport and hospitality prices, putting the Bank of England under pressure to reconsider the pace of interest-rate cuts, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 3.8% in July from a year earlier, up from 3.6% in June and the fastest pace since January 2024, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The pickup was forecast by the BOE but exceeded the 3.7% economists were predicting. Services inflation, a closely watched gauge of underlying price pressures, climbed to 5%, above the BOE’s 4.9% forecast.

Norway’s Kongsberg Discovery, Kongsberg Gruppen’s business area for robotics and sensor technology, is set to acquire active and passive electromagnetic sensing capabilities from Argeo’s bankruptcy estate, Offshore-Energy.biz reported.

Europe should deepen its relationships with trade partners outside the U.S., European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said, the Wall Street Journal reported. “While the U.S. is—and will remain—an important trading partner, Europe should also aim to deepen its trade ties with other jurisdictions, leveraging the strengths of its export-oriented economy,” Lagarde told a panel at the World Economic Forum in Geneva on Wednesday.

Japan’s exports sustained their steepest drop in more than four years in July as U.S. tariffs continued to weigh on global commerce, clouding the outlook for economic growth at a time when personal spending remains unsteady, Bloomberg News reported. Exports fell 2.6% in value from a year earlier, sliding more than the median forecast of a 2.1% decline, the Finance Ministry reported on Wednesday. The downturn, led by cars, auto parts and steel, was the biggest since February 2021. Export volumes rose by 1.2%, suggesting exporters are continuing to absorb U.S.

Indonesia’s central bank continued its rate-cutting cycle as steady inflation provides room to loosen policy further to support growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bank Indonesia cut its benchmark seven-day reverse repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.00% on Wednesday. The decision had been expected to be a close call: Four of seven economists polled by The Wall Street Journal forecast no change, while three expected a 25-basis-point cut. The central bank also lowered its overnight deposit facility rate to 4.25% and its lending facility rate to 5.75%.

Switzerland is intensifying efforts to strengthen its attractiveness as a business location, its government said on Wednesday, after being hit with some of the highest U.S. tariffs worldwide, Reuters reported. Efforts will focus on regulatory relief for Swiss companies, and new rules incurring high costs for businesses could be pushed back, the government said in a statement. U.S. President Donald Trump this month imposed U.S. import tariffs of 39% on Swiss goods, though pharmaceuticals and some other sectors have so far been spared the duties.

Sweden’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate in place as inflation continues to climb, but said it could resume cutting rates later this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The policy rate will be left at 2.00%, the Riksbank said Wednesday, in a decision widely expected by investors. But “the Executive Board sees some probability of a further interest rate cut this year,” the central bank said. “The upturn [in annual inflation] is assessed to be due to temporary factors,” it said in a release.