Sweden’s highly contested response to Covid-19 left much of the economy open. Even so, the country is now headed for its worst recession since World War II, Bloomberg News reported. Scandinavia’s biggest economy will shrink 7% this year, Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Tuesday. Shortly after she spoke, the debt office revealed an historic 30-fold spike in borrowing to cover emergency spending amid record job losses. A separate survey showed 40% of businesses in Sweden’s service sector now fear bankruptcy.

Casual Dining Group, a KKR-owned company that runs continental-themed mass market restaurants brands in the U.K., is weighing cutting costs with its landlords and filing for administration, according to a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. The owner of Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia, and employer to 6,000 people, said on Monday it hired advisers AlixPartners and law firm Kirkland & Ellis as it mulls alternatives to address liabilities that were last reported at near $300 million one year ago.

Boris Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator accused the European Union of offering the U.K. only a “low-quality” trade deal as talks between the two sides descended into acrimony, Bloomberg News reported. In a dramatic intervention in the increasingly fractious negotiations over the future U.K.-EU relationship, David Frost complained the bloc is treating Britain as “unworthy” of a fair deal. He told his EU counterpart Michel Barnier to “think again.” The EU is demanding that the U.K.

British luggage brand Antler has collapsed into administration, becoming the latest victim of the coronavirus crisis and its devastating impact on international travel, Reuters reported. Restructuring firm KPMG said on Tuesday it had been appointed administrator to the 106-year old brand, which operates 18 retail stores and one concession outlet. It also sells via its own website, through Amazon and wholesales to several large retail chains across the United Kingdom. It also has third party licence deals in Australia and Asia.

Tech start-ups across Europe are struggling to access coronavirus support schemes because of EU state aid rules, industry groups from several countries say, threatening to undermine Brussels’ attempts to stimulate local rivals to Silicon Valley, the Financial Times reported. More than a dozen tech trade groups, including industry associations in France, Germany, the UK and Ireland, have together written to EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager calling for “more flexibility” in member states’ ability to provide “vital” support to lossmaking but innovative small businesse

Thyssenkrupp AG is considering the sale of units that make steel and submarines as the conglomerate fights for survival in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The company said on Monday it will explore “consolidation options” for the two businesses in the latest plank in management’s strategy to downsize the firm and concentrate on higher-margin business areas after years of struggles. “We have taken some difficult decisions that were long overdue,” Chief Executive Officer Martina Merz said in a statement.

The euro zone issuance market for subordinated, loss-absorbing bank bonds re-opened this week for the first time in almost three months after a severe sell-off in the asset class due to the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. The 80 billion euro ($86 billion) market for these bonds - the riskiest debt banks can issue - had been shut for issuance since Feb. 20, according to Refinitiv IFR data, as borrowing costs shot up, while banks also waited to release their first quarter earnings.

As the European Union lurches toward one of the worst slumps since the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720, EU regulators have adapted their playbook from more recent history to help salvage companies from the ravages of Covid-19, Bloomberg News reported. Just over a decade ago, Brussels competition watchdogs had to oversee massive state bailouts doled out to a banking system on the brink of collapse. With a credit crunch threatening to topple global economies, the EU stepped in to ensure loans started flowing but with strict conditions to prevent competition from being left in tatters

To the analysts at UBS Global Wealth Management, the $3.9 trillion municipal-bond market is heading into the biggest financial storm anyone has ever seen, Bloomberg News reported. The nation’s swift economic collapse is hitting virtually every corner of the market, which extends far beyond states and cities with the power to raise taxes. Nursing homes that have sold tax-exempt debt are being ravaged by the outbreak. College dormitory operators are facing vacancies, while small private schools that were already competing for students face uncertain prospects.

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd.’s ability to avoid collapse could come down to about a dozen potential investors who tuned into a video presentation on the airline’s coronavirus survival plan this week, Bloomberg News reported. Chief Executive Officer Shai Weiss pitched the firms in a simultaneous online link-up, according to a person familiar with the matter.