Virgin Atlantic has received 400 million pounds ($530 million) of new funding from its shareholders to help the airline ride out the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported. In a statement Monday, the company said its shareholders, Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, will provide the money in line with their stakes. Virgin Group owns 51% of the airline, while Delta owns the rest. “Our story has been well documented during the pandemic,” Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss said.

Andalusian bankruptcy has grown by 37% in the first eleven months of 2021 although this is still slightly behind the national average of 40% that the data has shown so far, EuroWeeklyNews.com reported. There have been 456 business tenders leading up to November and in the same period an increase of 19% on dissolutions bringing that number to 3,288. The numbers come from a study by Informa D&B SAU (MSE), which is a Cesce subsidiary company. Regarding the month of November, the concursos in Andalusia have risen by 32%, to 50, and the dissolutions have done so by 8%, to reach 309.

State-owned water and sewerage utilities in Bulgaria are facing bankruptcy due to high electricity prices caused by the energy crisis. The government and regulatory authorities are trying to find the solution, but for now they have different views on the issue, BalkanGreenEnergyNews.com reported. Electricity prices on power exchange IBEX in Bulgaria have risen fivefold since January, from EUR 45 per MWh to about EUR 220.

Nordic Aviation Capital AS is planning to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy this month to carry out its restructuring plan, Bloomberg News reported. The aircraft lessor has shored up support from its largest creditors to implement the plan, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Major creditors have also agreed to provide financing to help fund Nordic Aviation’s operations through bankruptcy.

UniCredit SpA said that it plans to expand by hiring staff and investing in digitization as part of a three-year strategic plan that includes share buybacks and bigger dividends, the Wall Street Journal reported. The plan, the first since Chief Executive Andrea Orcel took the helm in April, targets annual revenue growth of about 2% and profit growth of 10% through 2024. UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank by assets, said it would distribute at least €16 billion, equivalent to $18.2 billion, to investors in dividends and share buybacks over the next three years.

The European Central Bank is studying whether to tweak how it reinvests its emergency bond purchases to help countries weather future moments of market turmoil, Bloomberg News reported. The Governing Council could expand the period of time in which it rolls over maturing securities and apply more flexibility to the geographic allocation of such buying in the so-called PEPP measure, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity as such discussions are confidential. They added that no decisions have been taken.

A deputy German finance minister warned of “permanent inflation risks” over the longer term, a contrast with the European Central Bank’s position that such pressures probably won’t endure, Bloomberg News reported. Florian Toncar, a deputy to new Finance Minister Christian Lindner, said inflation will likely moderate to 2% or 3% after the Covid-19 surge subsides, easing a once-in-a-generation cost-of-living squeeze in Europe’s largest economy. But supply shortfalls, rising wages and spending on Germany’s ambitious climate agenda will contribute to price pressures.

Ireland may benefit from another surge in corporation tax despite having to give up its prized 12.5 per cent rate, the chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) has said, the Irish Times reported. Instead of losing €2 billion a year as the Government has forecast, Ireland could benefit directly from the recent global agreement on tax, which will involve a new minimum rate of 15 per cent, Ifac chairman Sebastian Barnes.

Germany’s soon-to-be finance minister, Christian Lindner, suggested that the euro region should be careful to prevent swelling government debt burdens from dictating the path of monetary policy, Bloomberg News reported. “Debts in the European Economic and Monetary Union have increased sharply due to the pandemic,” Lindner, the chairman of the pro-business Free Democrats, said at news conference in Berlin on Tuesday. “That’s why we are sensitive to avoiding a situation of fiscal dominance in the future,” he added.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his government would present a new package of pandemic restrictions this week in response to the new Omicron coronavirus variant and was considering how to handle the approaching Christmas holidays, Reuters reported. "Tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest, we will present a second (package) related to the Christmas situation, and as reaction to the virus' Omicron mutation because the situation is indeed not looking good... We have many deaths," Morawiecki told a news conference.