Bloomberg The gloom is clearing over Ukraine’s beleaguered consumers. Faced with a war on the border with Russia and a devaluation that sent inflation shooting past 60 percent, crumbling domestic demand kept the economy shrinking for eight straight quarters on an annual basis. A spending revival helped reverse the slump in the first three months of the year, according …

  London / AFP French oil and gas company Total officially launched a project off Britain’s remote Shetland Islands on Monday, hailed by London as a “vote of confidence” in the flagging Scottish North Sea oil and gas industry. The Laggan-Tormore fields are located 600 metres (1,970 feet) under water off Britain’s northernmost outpost. They began production on February 7 …

  Bloomberg Royal Philips NV is seeking to raise as much as €970 million ($1.1 billion) from the initial public offering of a 25 percent stake in its lighting unit in Amsterdam after a private sale process didn’t result in a deal. Philips is planning to sell 37.5 million shares at a range of between €18.50 and €22.50 per share, …