Russia nears default after making ruble payment

gHello.

VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, is set to become the latest victim of Western sanctions.

Its UK division is due in court in London today, where it will ask the judge to order a so-called special administration, Bloomberg reports.

It comes after a court ordered the UK unit of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank to be dissolved, while Sova Capital, a London-based brokerage controlled by Russian banker Roman Avdeev, went into special administration last month. .

Special administration is a form of insolvency that protects the entire market from collapse. Gazprom’s British operations narrowly avoided that fate after Germany took control of the gas giant’s subsidiary.

5 things to start your day

1) Taxpayer pumps £400m into hydrogen as ministers push to meet net zero targets Hydrogen technology should offer a low-carbon way to power trucks and trains

2) Uber adds plane and train tickets to its app Ridesharing app aims to become a ‘one-stop-shop’ for transport booking

3) ‘Channel 4 is all about taking risks’: Why a sale could backfire on you Freeing the broadcaster from public ownership could allow it to compete with Netflix

4) Biden faces recession as he heads into election year, Deutsche Bank warns Federal Reserve set to aggressively raise interest rates to curb highest inflation in 40 years

5) P&O Ferries tells customers to stay away from Dover over Easter Competing operators’ services are fully booked, meaning they can’t cope with those who can no longer travel with P&O

What happened overnight

Asian stock markets fell on Wednesday as investors faced the possibility of aggressive monetary tightening from the US Federal Reserve to fight inflation, while the focus was also on further Western sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

In morning trade in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei lost nearly 2%, while South Korean stocks fell 0.9% and Australian stocks lost 0.75%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan slipped 1.3% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.3%, pulling away from a one-month high hit on Monday .

Shanghai lost 0.1pc as mainland markets reopened after two days of public holidays.

coming today

• Business : Hilton Food Group, Lookers (annual results); Hyve Group, Imperial Marks, Motorpoint, Topps Tiles (commercial update)
• Economy: Building PMI (UK)producer price index (EU)FOMC Minutes (WE)