The UK subsidiary of the Reader's Digest magazine has been bought out of administration by Better Capital, Jon Moulton's new turnround private equity group, the Financial Times reported. The £13m deal is Mr Moulton's second investment since he floated Better Capital in London last year. Reader's Digest UK filed for administration in February after failing to secure backing from the pensions regulator for a deal to fund its £125m pension deficit.

Wilbur Ross, the billionaire US turnaround specialist, has bought a 21 per cent stake in Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Money for £100 million as the group prepares to make a major assault on the UK banking market, The Scotsman reported. Ross, nicknamed the "King of Bankruptcy", is also prepared to pump in "hundreds of millions" more to fund acquisitions, including Virgin's £2 billion bid for 318 Royal Bank of Scotland branches. Virgin will join Clydesdale Bank owner National Australia Bank and Santander in submitting a bid for the RBS assets ahead of tomorrow's deadline.

Germany's tough conditions for any aid for Greece, which other euro-zone countries were forced to swallow at a European Union leaders' summit last week, signal a broader division that threatens to hamper Europe's ambitions as a global power: Germany has cooled to unity, except on its terms, The Wall Street Journal reported. In the past two years Germany effectively vetoed joint European action to rescue banks and stimulate growth, and rejected euro-zone calls for more teamwork on economic policy.

Dubai World may ask creditors for five to eight years to repay its $22 billion in debt as part of a restructuring proposal that could come as early as this week, people close to the matter say, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The Emirates conglomerate and its creditors also are weighing a structure that would give creditors a share of the proceeds from asset sales or possibly a share in future profit of the company if it cannot fully meet its interest-payment obligations, one of these people said.

Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co., UBS AG and Hypo Real Estate Holding AG’s Depfa Bank Plc unit were charged with fraud linked to the sale of derivatives to the City of Milan, Bloomberg reported. Judge Simone Luerti scheduled the trial of the four firms, 11 bankers and two former city officials for May 6, Prosecutor Alfredo Robledo said after a hearing in Milan today. The banks allegedly misled the city on swaps that adjusted interest payments on €1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) of borrowings.

A High Court judge has ruled that Portsmouth's administration is valid and has suspended the winding-up petition placed on the club by HM Revenue & Customs, ESPN reported. The Inland Revenue appeared before the Royal Courts of Justice in London and said it was now satisfied current owner Balram Chainrai had the right to put the club into administration.

European politicians and regulators could initiate a continent-wide ban on speculative trading of sovereign credit-default swaps tomorrow. Making it stick without the Americans won’t work, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. New York and London dominate swaps trading, and both have resisted greater regulation. Last year, U.S. regulators and Congress rejected a proposed ban on buying credit-default swaps without owning the underlying debt. Adair Turner, chairman of the U.K.

The president of Iceland has urged Gordon Brown, UK prime minister, to take personal responsibility for settling the dispute over €3.9bn lost by British and Dutch savers in the Icesave bank after Icelandic voters overwhelmingly rejected a deal to repay the money. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, whose decision to block the repayment plan triggered Saturday's referendum, told the Financial Times it was "high time" for Mr Brown to "take the matter into his own hands" after more than a year of wrangling.

Dubai World is expected to approach lenders for the first time this week with a suggested proposal for restructuring $22 billion of its debts, according to people close to the situation, the Financial Times reported. The troubled conglomerate has called leading creditors to London for meetings starting as early as Monday. Bankers expect the one-on-one meetings to reveal the first details of a formal proposal, which the government has said should be finalised this month.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet pressed Greece to halt its flirtation with International Monetary Fund aid and work with European allies to tame its record budget deficit, Bloomberg reported. As protesters besieged the Greek Finance Ministry to denounce €4.8 billion ($6.5 billion) of tax increases and spending cuts, the Athens government said the absence of European support might force it into the hands of the IMF.