Bankers and private credit funds are working on a financing deal of around €1 billion ($1.05 billion) to back a potential buyout of French insurance broker Kereis as the sale process kicks off, Bloomberg News reported. A debt package of that size would equate to around five times Kereis’ approximate €180 million earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Insurance brokers have been a lucrative target for PE firms because of their recurring revenue streams, and due to the fragmentation of the industry.

New Zealand-based Cooks Coffee Company plans to place its Triple Two coffee franchise business in the UK into an insolvency process, VerdictFoodService.com reported. For this, the company intends to appoint administrators for its franchise business, which includes Triple Two Holdings and its subsidiaries. In a statement, Cooks Coffee Company said: “Triple Two was growing rapidly before the Covid-19 pandemic and had shown continuing momentum in FY22.

French grocery delivery startup La Belle Vie is acquiring Frichti, another food delivery service that was placed under court-ordered receivership, TechCrunch.com reported. The court picked La Belle Vie’s offer over three other offers. This is yet another chapter in the tumultuous story of quick commerce and food delivery services in France and Europe. Frichti was started in 2015 and had raised around €100 million over the years to deliver ready-to-eat meals for the lunch break. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the company expanded its offering and started delivering groceries as well.

Higher interest rates in Europe will put pressure on the credit ratings of the region's companies and banks, S&P Global said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "The trend in credit quality is turning negative for corporates, especially for speculative-grade issuers, as financing conditions tighten," the rating firm said in a new report. "Real estate remains one of the most exposed sectors. For European banks, while asset quality deterioration will emerge, credit losses are expected to only normalize," the report added.

Scandinavia’s biggest airline SAS AB has received a final round of bids from potential suitors looking to invest in the carrier as part of a rescue plan to shore up its ailing finances, Reuters reported. The Stockholm-based company, which is going through a chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S., needs to raise at least 9.5 billion Swedish kronor ($856 million) in new equity and convert or cut its debt pile of about 20 billion kronor. Chief Executive Officer Anko van der Werff has previously said the amount of equity is not set and could go higher.

SBB, the landlord at the center of Sweden’s property crisis, will deploy roughly half of a cash lifeline to repay upcoming debt maturities, according to comments by rating firm Standard & Poor’s, Bloomberg News reported. On Sunday, Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB — as the company is formally known — said it had covered a near-term funding gap in a deal that will raise 8 billion Swedish kronor ($720 million) by ceding control in a portfolio of schools to Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Ltd.

Hungary’s central bank cut its key interest rate by a full percentage point for a fifth month, ending an emergency monetary regime imposed last year to arrest a slump in the forint, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Council lowered the overnight deposit rate to 13% on Tuesday, matching the forecast of all economists in a Bloomberg survey. That’s on par with the level of the base rate, which is expected to resume being the effective key interest rate for the economy.

Germany slashed the volume of federal debt sales planned for the fourth quarter by €31 billion ($33 billion) as the government winds down financial support for households and companies hit by soaring energy costs, Bloomberg News reported. Bond issuance will be cut by €8 billion and sales of bills by €23 billion compared with a plan published last December, the federal finance agency said Tuesday in an emailed statement. Together with the reduction in the third quarter, that would trim total sales for this year by €45 billion to about €500 billion, still a record.

Struggling Swedish landlord SBB took a major step toward stabilizing its finances with a cash injection and a plan to divide up its operations, sending a signal that money is available despite the country’s real estate crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB — as the company is officially known — will largely close its near-term funding gap in a deal that will raise 8 billion Swedish kronor ($720 million). The shares surged as much as 40%, and the company’s bonds maturing in January 2025 jumped 6 cents on the euro, according to data complied by Bloomberg.

The cabinet of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni approved a fiscal aid package worth about €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion), including help for households coping with soaring energy bills, a government official said, Bloomberg News reported. Meloni’s right-wing government will extend tax breaks and discounts on electricity and gas bills and help low-income families pay for fuel and public transportation, the official said.