The Czech Republic’s central bank cut its key interest rate for the second straight time Thursday in an effort to help the struggling economy, the Associated Press reported. The cut by a half-percentage point brought the interest rate down to 6.25%. The bank also trimmed borrowing costs by a quarter-point on Dec. 21, which marked the first cut since June 22, 2022. Between 2021 and 2022, the bank unleashed a series of rate hikes to try to combat soaring inflation. The last hike of 1.25 percentage points took the rate to 7%, the highest level since early 1999.

The collapse of the Signa retail and real estate group is so dire that even companies hired to liquidate an insolvent unit will have to stand in line to recoup their money, Bloomberg News reported. The bankruptcy administrator for Signa Real Estate Management GmbH said assets were insufficient to pay for the clean-up, triggering a special clause under Austrian insolvency law, according to a notice to the Vienna Commercial Court.

Distressed Chinese developer Guangzhou R&F Properties plans to sell a property project in London by asking to receive some of its dollar bonds and just HK$1 (S$0.17) of cash, the Business Times reported. The defaulted builder signed a letter of intent to sell the holding company of Market Towers at 1 Nine Elms Lane, according to a filing late Tuesday (Feb 6) in Hong Kong. The mixed-used development is valued at £1.34 billion (S$2.27 billion) and includes 437 residential units and a hotel, it said.

SBB said on Tuesday that one of its creditors had started legal proceedings against the Swedish property group for debt recovery, citing a breach of a bond clause, Reuters reported. Although the company did not disclose the name of the bondholder, it said the combined debt owned by the party represented 46 million euros ($49.43 million). Reuters reported in November that U.S. hedge fund Fir Tree Partners was accelerating its notes and starting proceedings against SBB for debt recovery, the first such official demand faced by the landlord.

Britain’s biggest homebuilder Barratt Developments agreed on Wednesday to purchase rival Redrow for £2.52 billion ($3.18 billion) as signs emerged of a recovery in the U.K. housing market, MarketWatch.com reported. Adding Redrow’s high-end homes to Barratt’s portfolio would give “customers a wider range of home types and price points,” while also delivering cost synergies of up to £90 million from “procurement savings and a rationalization of divisional and central functions,” said the FTSE 100 member.

Sweden's central bank could cut rates as early as the first half of this year, but there are risks that inflation might prove stubborn, delaying policy easing, the minutes of the central bank's most recent meeting, published on Wednesday, showed, Reuters reported. The Riksbank kept its key interest rate unchanged at 4.00% on Feb. 1, but said it could start loosening policy much earlier than its previous forecast.

Telecom Italia SpA is planning to reject Italy’s bid of up to €750 million ($805 million) for its submarine cable unit Telecom Italia Sparkle SpA dragging on the sale of a strategic asset for the government, Bloomberg News reported. The company’s board is expected to ask Italy’s Finance Ministry for better terms for the entire unit at a meeting Wednesday. Giorgia Meloni’s government is trying to take over what it views as a particularly strategic asset beyond Italy. Sparkle operates over 600,000 kilometers (373,000 miles) of cables connecting countries including Israel and the US.

Retail sales growth in the U.K. slowed in January mainly due to easing inflation and weak consumer demand, with cost-of-living pressures entering their third year, according to British Retail Consortium data, the Wall Street Journal reported. Total retail sales for the four weeks to Jan. 27 increased by 1.2% on month compared with 1.7% growth the prior month and the three-month average of 1.9%, the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor said Tuesday. Growth stood at 4.2% in January last year.

Europe's green energy transition is stuck between a rock and a hard place. A flood of cheap Chinese solar panel imports is driving record solar energy installations. But those same imports are crushing Europe's few local solar manufacturers, Reuters reported. Governments and industry are split over how to respond. Europe just had a bumper year for green energy. European Union countries installed record levels of solar capacity, 40% more than in 2022. The vast majority of those panels and parts came from China – in some cases, 95%, International Energy Agency data show.

Scandinavian airline SAS said it would file a second amended chapter 11 plan of reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday and said it had obtained the support of the unsecured creditors' committee, Reuters reported. The company said it expected about $325 million to be allocated to general unsecured creditors as part of the amended plan, consisting of up to $250 million in cash and $75 million in new equity.