Nordic Aviation Capital is the first large aircraft leasing company to be engaged in a corporate restructuring due to Covid-19, ICLG.com reported. A world-leading aircraft leasing company, Nordic Aviation serves 75 airlines in over 50 countries. On 20 August, the company released a press statement announcing the appointment of a new CEO, Patrick de Castelbajac.

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Portugal expects airline TAP will need around 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in extra funds with state guarantees to cover its financing needs until 2024 under a restructuring plan, Reuters reported. Flag carrier TAP asked for state aid in April after suspending almost all of its 2,500 weekly flights at the height of the coronavirus crisis, which hit airlines globally. The overhaul plan, which needs European Commission approval, was submitted on Thursday and envisages TAP would need to cut around 2,000 jobs by 2022 and introduce pay cuts of up to 25%.

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Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group Plc is getting closer to a deal to rescue part of the ailing Debenhams department-store chain, according to people familiar with the situation, Bloomberg News reported. The owner of the House of Fraser and Sports Direct chains is in negotiations to buy the 242-year-old Debenhams brand and website and to take on a substantial number of stores, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

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Financial engineering, like life, moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it. Few companies have had to move faster this year than Tui, whose AGM presentation in mid February mentioned coronavirus only once, the Financial Times reported. “At present, we do not see any significant impact from the virus on our outlook,” chief executive Fritz Joussen told shareholders.

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The European Central Bank has launched a fresh burst of stimulus to help the eurozone economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic, promising to buy €500bn more bonds over a longer period and providing extra cheap funding for banks, the Financial Times reported. The ECB increased the size of its pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) from €1.35tn to €1.85tn and pushed back the end of its main crisis-fighting tool from next June until at least March 2022, while reinvesting any proceeds until at least the end of 2023.

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An application by bankrupt businessman Sean Dunne to vary an order requiring him to pay €7,000 a month for the benefit of creditors in his Irish bankruptcy was heard in private at the High Court on Thursday, The Irish Times reported. The private hearing was sought by Edward Farrelly SC, for Mr Dunne’s Irish bankruptcy trustee, arising from matters referred to by Mr Dunne in a sworn affidavit. Mr Dunne, representing himself, opposed the matter being heard in camera.

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The Portuguese government’s draft restructuring plan for ailing flag carrier TAP projects it may need around 2 billion euros of additional state aid by 2024, while thousands of jobs will be terminated to turn the airline around, three sources said, Reuters reported. One of the sources familiar with the document told Reuters it envisaged that TAP, which had a loss of 701 million euros in the first nine months of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic slashed its passenger numbers by 70%, should break even in 2025. The plan still needs to be approved by the European Commission.

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Insolvency and restructuring activity remained low across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), since the beginning of the pandemic, except Romania, which has recorded an increase in the number of insolvencies, and Czech Republic, which saw an increasing trend in restructuring, according to PwC ”Global Restructuring Trends” report, Business Review reported…According to the report, insolvencies are expected to increase in Q4 2020 and into 2021 globally, especially for those companies that operate in heavily COVID-19-affected industries that may take much longer to recover, such as leisure, trave

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