Thames Water’s board is split over two competing deals from its lenders aimed at saving the UK’s biggest water supplier from going insolvent, The Guardian reported. Two classes of creditors, group A bondholders and group B bondholders, are offering high-interest £3bn rescue packages intended as a liquidity lifeline while the company burns through cash and seeks to restructure its debts. Thames is labouring under an unsustainable £15bn debt burden after years of paying hefty dividends as well as fines for pollution scandals.

NatWest Group Plc bought back £1 billion ($1.29 billion) of its shares from the UK government as the Treasury continues to sell down its stake in the lender, Bloomberg News reported. The off-market purchase of 262.6 million shares brought the Treasury’s voting rights in the lender to about 11.4% from about 14.2% previously, according to a statement. The transaction is the first time that NatWest has done two directed buybacks in a twelve-month period.

Project developer HH2E AG is set to file for self-administration after it failed to secure financing for one of Germany’s largest hydrogen projects, Bloomberg News reported. HH2E has been fundraising for its first development project, a hydrogen production plant in the Baltic port of Lubmin. While it said negotiations resulted in final agreements, majority shareholder Foresight Group Holdings Ltd. ultimately decided against providing the necessary financing, HH2E said in a statement. Foresight didn’t comment on its role in the breakdown of financing discussions in a separate statement.

Cash-strapped battery maker Northvolt AB is working on a plan to raise more than 10 billion kronor ($920 million) to continue its operations beyond the immediate horizon, according to its chief executive officer, Bloomberg News reported. “In the long term we need to secure a capitalization of somewhat north of 10 billion kronor in the coming year,” CEO Peter Carlsson told reporters after a seminar in Stockholm on Wednesday.

Cosmetics chain The Body Shop has been declared bankrupt by the court, according to a notification in the Central Insolvency Register, the NL Times reported. In a statement on Facebook, the chain itself speaks of a bankruptcy in the Netherlands. The stores will remain open for the time being, while a bankruptcy administrator investigates whether there are possibilities for a restart. The Body Shop filed for bankruptcy and it was declared by the District Court for Midden-Nederland on Tuesday. The Body Shop is registered in Weesp, which is officially part of Amsterdam.

Germany’s fractious coalition government collapsed on Wednesday, tipping the economically embattled nation into a political crisis and adding uncertainty for Europe as the region grapples with Donald Trump’s election win in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner, chairman of the pro-business Free Democratic Party—the smallest member of his three-way coalition of free-market liberals, social democrats and Greens—because of disagreements over economic policy, a spokesman for Scholz said.

The Bank of England lowered its key interest rate, the first major central bank to move since Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president scrambled the outlook for the global economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The BOE said Thursday it would reduce its key rate to 4.75% from 5%, its second cut in the past three meetings. The bank forecast that inflation will fall to its target in early 2027 after a short-lived rebound over the coming months. The decision was opposed by just one of its nine policymakers.

Sweden’s central bank lowered its key interest rate on Thursday, becoming the first central bank to do so since the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president created fresh uncertainties about the global economic outlook, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Riksbank cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 2.75% and said borrowing costs would likely be lowered again soon as an economic recovery seems elusive.

Norway’s central bank held its key policy rate at 4.5% as a weak krone continues to threaten efforts to bring inflation down, the Wall Street Journal reported. The policy rate has been at 4.5% since December 2023 and has helped to significantly dampen inflation from its peak, but a rapid rise in business costs and the krone’s depreciation will likely restrain further disinflation, Norges Bank said. Forecasts presented at its September meeting indicated a gradual reduction in the policy rate from the first quarter of 2025.