The profits were multiplying at a dizzying clip: 50%, 100%, then suddenly almost 200%. Even for long-time veterans at Attestor Ltd., a boutique London firm that specializes in trading distressed assets, this had the makings of a score to remember, Bloomberg News reported. The trade — targeting the remains of Sam Bankman-Fried’s once-vast cryptocurrency empire — became a popular one in distressed investing circles last year.

The number of companies declared insolvent in England and Wales last month was 17% higher than a year earlier, as many businesses continued to struggle following a surge in costs last year and ongoing high interest rates, Reuters reported. The Insolvency Service, a government agency, said 2,102 companies were declared insolvent, up from 1,801 in February 2023 and more than 50% higher than in February 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit Britain.

The Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has admitted an insolvency resolution application against Jatin Rajnikant Mehta, the personal guarantor of bankrupt Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery, for a default of over Rs 457 crore, the Economic Times of India reported. Mehta is suspected to be in St. Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean island country. Winsome Diamonds, which was earlier known as Su-Raj Diamonds and Jewellery, has admitted liabilities of over Rs 12,668 crore.

A hedge-fund founder at the center of a $1.2 billion legal battle between Indian education-technology company Byju’s and its lenders is staying outside the U.S. despite a court order to return, saying he fears for his safety, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. William Cameron Morton said in an interview that he left the U.S. rather than comply with a court order to divulge the whereabouts of nearly $540 million that Byju’s invested in his Florida-based hedge-fund firm, Camshaft Capital.

An effort by the American media executive Jeff Zucker and his Emirati backers to acquire London’s Daily Telegraph appeared to be on life support on Wednesday after the British government advanced legislation that would bar foreign state ownership of newspapers and newsmagazines, the New York Times reported. The move by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would torpedo Mr. Zucker’s bid in its current form, which relies heavily on financing from investment partners in the United Arab Emirates.

The U.K. economy rebounded in January, registering modest growth after falling into a technical recession in the second half of last year, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product rose 0.2% following a 0.1% decline in December, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. Services and construction delivered the gains, offsetting a drop in industrial production. The figures leave Britain on track to grow over the first quarter as a whole, bringing the recession to an end.

U.K. wage growth eased marginally, as the unemployment rate ticked up, a small relief to Bank of England policymakers hoping that labor pressures would ease ahead of expected interest-rate cuts later this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The headline measure of average annual pay growth, excluding bonuses, was 6.1% in the three months to January, compared with 6.2% in the final quarter of 2023, a fifth fall in as many months, according to data published Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics. The rate was the lowest since October 2022.

The majority of North East councillors have agreed to accept Budget proposals aimed at saving the local authority from effective bankruptcy, the Northern Echo reported. The Full Middlesbrough Council met at the town hall on Friday to cast their vote on the plans which include the maximum council tax rise, along with a charge for green waste collection. They also agreed to accept exceptional financial support from the Government allowing the council to borrow £13.4m. The vote saw 25 councillors vote for the Budget plans and 16 against while five abstained.

A U.K. government agency is seeking to disqualify Lex Greensill, the founder of failed specialty lender Greensill Capital, from acting as a director, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Insolvency Service said on Thursday that it had started proceedings against Greensill to disqualify him from running or controlling companies for up to 15 years, owing to his conduct as a director of Greensill Capital. The agency had been investigating the directors of Greensill after its collapse in March 2021.

NHS Lothian accepted the handover of an unfinished children's hospital to stop the private consortium behind the deal going bust, a public inquiry has heard, according to BBC Scotland News. The IHSL group building the Sick Kids in Edinburgh was facing insolvency, just months before the facility was due to open in July 2019. If IHSL went bust then NHS Lothian faced paying out at least £150m to get the project finished. The health board took ownership of the building in February 2019. But four months later last-minute inspections found safety concerns over the hospital's ventilation systems.