Hibu, the Reading-based Yellow Pages company, has placed six US subsidiaries into Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection as the firm attempts to restructure its overseas operations, following the firm’s UK restructuring which started last month, IT Pro Portal reported. Hibu filed with the US Bankruptcy Court in New York, listing over $1 billion (£600 million) in assets and liabilities. Just over half of Hibu’s revenue comes from the US, where it operates the “Yellowbook” (the US version of the Yellow Pages directory) across most states. The firm employs almost 5,000 personnel in America.

A Hull-based legal firm has been wound up by the High Court in Manchester for abusing the UK insolvency regime, Insolvency News reported. An investigation by The Insolvency Service found Lovell Hill & Co LLP (LCH) had been offering bankruptcy relocation services to Germans seeking to take advantage of the shorter bankruptcy discharge periods in the UK; an act known as bankruptcy tourism. Acting as bankruptcy relocation advisers, LHC assisted German nationals who wished to wrongly claim their Centre of Main Interest (COMI) was in England and Wales for bankruptcy purposes.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc set aside a further 3.1 billion pounds ($5.1 billion) to cover legal and compensation claims, putting Britain’s biggest bailed-out lender on track to post its largest pretax loss since 2008, Bloomberg News reported. The provision includes 1.9 billion pounds for lawsuits and fines tied mostly to the sale of $91 billion of mortgage-backed securities from 2005 to 2007, according to the lender. It follows agreements Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS AG struck with U.S.

Three junior holders and a committee representing senior bondholders of Punch Taverns' securitised debt said on Monday morning they would reject a proposed restructuring at an investor meeting scheduled to take place on February 14, Reuters reported. In its restructuring proposal launched on January 15, the company threatened to default if investors fail to agree to the terms put forward that would cut debt from GBP2.3bn to GBP1.83bn and net leverage from 11 to 8.7 times Ebitda.

The author of a report into state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland's lending to small businesses said he found no evidence of the bank engineering companies into default, Reuters reported. Andrew Large, who was commissioned by RBS last year to conduct the review, said he hadn't found anything to back up accusations made in a separate report by government adviser Lawrence Tomlinson. However, he did say there was an "element of plausibility" behind them.

The accounting watchdog has joined a long list of investigators examining the near collapse of the Co-operative Bank as it launched a review into KPMG’s auditing of the lender’s accounts, the Financial Times reported. The formal investigation by the Financial Reporting Council, which has the power to fine and suspend accountants, will examine the bank’s financial reports in the years leading up to the exposure of a £1.5bn capital shortfall last May.

Insolvency trade body R3 have put forward new proposals regarding current bankruptcy procedures, including extending the standard bankruptcy terms from one year to three, Insolvency News reported. In a new report, R3 have called for the reform of personal insolvency procedures to provide better protection to creditor and debtors alike, as “thousands of indebted individuals struggle to access a debt relief solution that is suitable for their needs”.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said he wants to see Britain’s minimum wage rise by more than inflation, as the government seeks to spread the benefits of an improving economy and rebuild support before next year’s election, Bloomberg News reported. “Because we’re fixing the economy, because we’re working through our plan, I believe that Britain can afford an above-inflation increase in the minimum wage,” Osborne said in a BBC television interview yesterday.

Punch Taverns Plc, the U.K. pub operator that’s seeking to restructure about 2.3 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) of bonds, asked noteholders to accept the final terms of a debt deal, saying the alternative is default, Bloomberg News reported. The offer, which modifies proposals published Dec. 9, will reduce the company’s borrowings by canceling some notes in return for cash payments or issues of new securities to bondholders, it said in a statement. The changes include increased interest rates on some of its debt, modified repayments on other parts and strengthened covenants.

Thousands of consumers who sent their old mobile phones to recyling site Cash4phones.co.uk have been left out of pocket after the company filed for insolvency, The Guardian reported. The website offered cash to consumers who wanted to get rid of an old phone after an upgrade, but payments were only made once handsets were received and users complained they were ultimately offered far less than originally quoted online. In some cases they reported the company failed to pay up at all.