United Kingdom

Hector Sants, the chief of Britain’s financial regulator, pledged last year to reverse his agency’s reputation as a toothless tiger. He wanted to spread fear across the financial services industry by stepping up the aggressiveness of its inquiries and by pursuing more prominent fraud cases. His opportunity has arrived, and its name is Goldman Sachs, The New York Times reported. The Goldman investigation comes at a pivotal time for the British regulator. The F.S.A.’s reputation, like its American counterpart’s, was damaged badly by the financial crisis.

Real estate company Hansteen Holdings has agreed to buy 61 properties from a trio of distressed investors for around 80 million pounds ($124 million) as the frequency of firesales in Britain's indebted property market picks up, Reuters reported. The multi-sector portfolio was bought from receivers acting for various subsidiaries of collapsed property firms Kilmartin Holdings Limited and Kilmartin Group Limited and administrators of Annfield Assets Limited. Some 42 of the 61 properties are in Scotland, 18 in England and one property is in Northern Ireland.

Canwest Global Communications Corp.’s insolvent newspaper division won an extension of bankruptcy protection until June 30 to let it complete an auction for the publications, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. Ontario Superior Court Judge Sarah Pepall granted the extension today following a hearing in Toronto. The bankruptcy protection, first granted Jan. 8, was due to expire April 14. Canwest Global agreed to sell Canwest Ltd.

Top Russian oil producer OAO Rosneft said a U.K. court lifted an order freezing GBP425 million ($648 million) of its assets, the latest twist in a legal battle with an affiliate of bankrupt Russian oil giant Yukos, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The freeze had been obtained last month by Netherlands-based Yukos Capital S.a.r.l., which is seeking to recover a $389 million debt Rosneft assumed when it acquired Yukos assets in 2004. Rosneft had refused to comply with an arbitration award by a Dutch court ordering it to repay the sum, plus interest and penalties.

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.