France is optimistic that the European Commission will sign off within days on an innovative plan for helping companies through the post-pandemic recovery, according to a finance ministry official, Bloomberg News reported. The French government has proposed a program to partially guarantee billions of euros of so-called participatory loans to improve corporate balance sheets and encourage borrowing for investment. The scheme is intended to benefit companies with long-term prospects.

Belgian tax authorities and National Social Security Office, ONSS, have agreed, for the moment, not to declare businesses that are too heavily indebted bankrupt, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told the Chamber’s Economic Affairs Commission this week, the Brussels Times reported. A moratorium on bankruptcies ended on Monday and Parliament is yet to approve a new bill on the judicial reorganisation procedure. Amendments to a text prepared by the Government were submitted only on Friday.

Airline maintenance provider Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) will lay off 300 employees in April due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the airline industry that forced some of its clients into bankruptcy, The Star reported. "This decision comes after careful study and consideration of the business situation as a result of the pandemic, its effects on the aviation industry," LTP president and CEO Elmar Lutter said in a letter to employees dated Feb. 11.

The board of the tour operator Neckermann, which runs a chain of travel agents across Belgium, has given itself until 22 February to solve its cash problems or declare bankruptcy, the Brussels Times reported. The deadline is a last-ditch effort to save the company, and the jobs of its 150 employees. In 2019 Neckermann Belgium was saved from the brink of bankruptcy after the collapse of the British parent company Thomas Cook when 62 of the 91 branches were taken over by Spanish tour company Wamos and rebranded as Neckermann.

Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, has been named Italian prime minister after persuading nearly all of the country’s squabbling parties to support his government, raising hopes that he can succeed where many others have failed: in leading Italy out of its deep economic malaise, the Wall Street Journal reported. Italy’s head of state, President Sergio Mattarella, appointed Mr. Draghi and his proposed ministers late Friday, ahead of a formal swearing-in to be held the following day and a parliamentary vote of confidence early next week. Mr.

An insolvency procedure widely used on the high street has spread to the high seas as Harding Retail, which operates boutiques on cruise ships, has resorted to a company voluntary arrangement to cut its debt, the Financial Times reported. Harding, which was founded in 1930, has had no revenue for 10 months after the US government effectively shut down the $150bn cruise industry by issuing a no-sail order in March last year. It operates 250 boutiques on more than 80 vessels.

Deutsche Bank AG has scrapped its plan to sell hundreds of millions of euros of debt for German pharmaceutical company Gruenenthal GmbH due to a lack of interest from investors, Bloomberg News reported. The loan was intended to replace some of the company’s existing financing. The family-owned business, which makes painkillers including opioid drugs such as Tramadol, had unsecured term loans and Schuldschein worth 935 million euros ($1.13 billion) due to mature this year, Bloomberg data show.

The new owners of Paperchase chose not to refer their acquisition to a scheme that reviews the sale of failed companies’ assets to connected parties, the London Times reported. Permira Debt Managers, the credit arm of the eponymous private equity firm and a secured creditor to Paperchase, the stationer that collapsed last month, acquired the key assets of the business via a pre-pack administration.