Businesses centring on travel and hospitality have endured a nightmare start to 2020. With the global outbreak of coronavirus, and the international lock-down ushered in to slow its spread, every aspect of the leisure sector has been battered by Covid-19-related headwinds, Consultancy.uk reported. In the airline segment for example, 700 of Lufthansa’s fleet of 760 planes have been grounded amid the coronavirus lock-down, with the number of passengers falling by 99%.

The U.K. car industry joined in a round of job cuts that has swept Europe, with auto companies looking to downsize to cope with lower sales following the Covid-19 pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc said Thursday it plans to eliminate almost 20% of the workforce, or as many as 500 positions, to cope with a slump in demand for luxury cars. Manchester-based vehicle-distributor Lookers Plc will close 12 sites and shed about 1,500 employees, while McLaren Group Ltd. said last week the supercar maker is seeking to cut about 1,200 jobs.

The UK government could face hefty losses on loans made to struggling businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic due to its new insolvency law that can force lenders to accept unfavourable terms during a debt restructuring process, Reuters reported. The new ‘Restructuring Plan’, part of the government’s Corporate Insolvency & Governance Bill being debated in parliament this week, empowers one class of creditors to force a debt restructuring plan on another class of creditors, in what is known as a cross class cramdown.

They are the A-team — respected veterans of Airbus, Europe’s aerospace champion, recalled from retirement to defend the industry’s fragile supply chain against a devastating collapse in demand, the Financial Times reported. Each has been chosen to lead a national task force: Tom Williams, former chief operating officer of Airbus commercial, for the UK; Didier Evrard, ex-head of aircraft programmes, for France; and Bernhard Gerwert, previously chief executive of the defence arm, for Germany. The aim is to bring together each country’s big aerospace manufacturers to plan for the sur

The coronavirus pandemic will reset the balance between private companies and the state in Britain and could in time produce a more productive economy, according to the man leading a 15 billion pound drive to support smaller firms, Reuters reported. Stephen Welton, head of Business Growth Fund (BGF), the most active investor in fast-growing British companies, is talking to the government, insurance companies, pension schemes and other investors to recapitalise businesses and prevent more permanent scarring. Central to any recovery, he believes, is the need to identify which compan

The European Central Bank will decide on Thursday whether its already massive monetary stimulus needs to be boosted even more to help haul the region out of its deepest recession in living memory, Bloomberg News reported. With President Christine Lagarde warning that the ECB’s worst-case predictions for the economy are likely to pan out, most economists expect policy makers to increase their 750 billion-euro ($842 billion) Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program and extend it beyond the end of this year. Policy makers including chief economist Philip Lane have telegraphed their readin

Group of Seven finance ministers on Wednesday said a debt relief initiative for the world’s poorest countries could be extended beyond the end of the year to help deal with economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. In a lengthy joint statement, the G7 finance ministers urged all official creditors to join the initiative, called for strengthened reporting of public debt data, and said all creditors - public and private - should make responsible lending decisions in line with debt sustainability guidelines. In an apparent reference to practices reportedly use

The outsiders that Michael Hintze brought in to his secretive hedge fund firm didn’t last long. Nor did their growth plans. The billionaire’s firm, known as CQS, a bastion of money-making whose flagship fund has returned more than three times the average of hedge fund peers since it opened in 2005, is now headed in reverse. The Hintze-managed fund plunged as much as 45% in March and April -- its worst-ever loss -- missing the rebound that followed the initial shock from the coronavirus pandemic even as peers recovered to post gains in April.

Lufthansa has pledged a wide-ranging restructuring, from thousands of job cuts to asset sales, as it seeks to repay a 9 billion euro ($10.1 billion) state bailout and navigate deepening losses in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. The pledged cost cuts came as the German carrier posted a first-quarter net loss of 2.1 billion euros on Wednesday, only days after securing the bailout that is intended to help the airline ride out the crisis but will require it to cede some of its prized landing slots to rivals. “In view of the very slow recovery in demand, we must

The threat of a no-deal Brexit is back -- and with it the risk that the U.K. economy’s shaky recovery from the coronavirus pandemic will be hobbled, Bloomberg News reported. As British and European Union negotiators head into the last round of talks scheduled before a key summit this month, chances are growing that the U.K. will end the post-Brexit transition period on Dec. 31 without a free trade agreement in place -- spelling turmoil for businesses. Instead of postponing its final parting with the bloc because of the coronavirus, the U.K. government has so far ruled out any delay.