Tullow Oil warned it risked defaulting on a debt facility if it does not resolve a potential liquidity shortfall, as the Africa-focused explorer slumped to a $1.4bn pre-tax loss for the first half of the year, the Financial Times reported. The London-listed company said on Wednesday that a “potential liquidity shortfall” threatened its ability to satisfy requirements at a “redetermination” next January of its reserves-based lending facility.

ED&F Man, one of London’s oldest commodities brokers, has restructured nearly $1.5bn of debt and raised an extra $320m in working capital from lenders, staving off a funding crunch, the Financial Times reported. A judge at the English High Court approved on Wednesday the company’s plan to switch its debt, held in credit facilities that mature in the next two weeks, into new secured loans and notes that come due over the next three years. The changes will be made through a scheme of arrangement.

One in five U.K. companies is a “zombie,” with profits only just covering debt interest payments, according to a report by an influential Conservative think tank, Bloomberg News reported.

PizzaExpress’s creditors approved a company proposal to cut rents and shut 73 of its U.K. restaurants as part of the chain’s effort to fix its finances amid the economic slump, Bloomberg News reported. The plan will put 1,100 job at risk. Almost 90% of the firm creditors and a majority of landlords supported a so-called Company Voluntary Arrangement proposed by the company, according to a regulatory filing on Monday. The deal paves the way for a financial restructuring which will see owner Hony Capital ceding control of operations, except for China, to creditors.

Norwegian Air, which is attempting to secure a second round of financial restructuring, saw a 91% decline in August passenger volume from a year earlier as most of its fleet remained grounded by the coronavirus pandemic, it said on Friday, Reuters reported. The budget carrier has said it will fly 25-30 of its aircraft in the months ahead, while more than 100 remain parked. Creditors and lessors took control of Norwegian in May with a financial rescue that allowed it to access state-guaranteed loans of 3 billion Norwegian crowns ($336 million) and thus prevent a collapse.

German industrial production rose by less than economists had expected in July, fuelling concerns about whether the nascent recovery in the eurozone’s pandemic-stricken economy is running out of steam, the Financial Times reported. The 1.2 per cent month-on-month rise in German industrial output in July reported by the Federal Statistical Office on Monday was the third consecutive month of growth.

More than a quarter of companies forced to take on extra debt to survive the pandemic have warned they may need to cut back their operations, highlighting a mounting crisis that economists warn could hold back business recovery in the UK, the Financial Times reported. More than 40 per cent of companies took on debt during the crisis, according to a survey conducted by the British Chambers of Commerce and banking group TSB. While one in four warned over their future growth plans, about a tenth said they may cease trading altogether.

Banks calculate that two-thirds of those in long-term arrears on their mortgage repayments ultimately risk losing their homes, it has emerged, The Irish Times reported. About 26,000 people are 720 days or more behind with their home-loan repayments, classing these debts as being in long-term arrears. An email from Central Bank economist Fergal McCann, responding to questions from consumer rights campaigners, says information from lenders suggests that two-thirds of the long-term mortgage arrears group have “loss of ownership flagged as the banks’ resolution path”.

The euro zone's rebound from its deepest economic downturn on record faltered in August, surveys showed on Thursday, with some countries in the bloc suffering more than others from restrictions imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Overall growth in the dominant service industry - which has been harder hit than manufacturing from lockdown measures - almost ground to a halt, suggesting the long road to recovery will be bumpy.

France has launched a €100bn plan to rescue its economy from the coronavirus crisis with big investments in green energy and transport as well as industrial innovation, the Financial Times reported.  Announcing the “France Relance” (France Relaunch) plan in Paris on Thursday, Prime Minister Jean Castex said its “historic ambition and size” made it almost four times as large as the national plan introduced after the 2008 financial crisis. At 4 per cent of gross domestic product, it was the “most massive” plan unveiled in Europe so far relative to the size of the economy, he