Swedish fashion retailer MQ will file for bankruptcy on Thursday, the company said, citing plunging sales because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. MQ had already been struggling in the face of a rapid transformation of the retail sector and last month filed for bankruptcy for the smaller of its two brands, Joy, and announced measures to minimise the impact on the group from the coronavirus crisis.

Dozens of UK retailers and restaurant chains are in talks to take advantage of an experimental “light touch” administration that is intended to protect companies from creditors during the coronavirus pandemic, the Financial Times reported. Department store chain Debenhams, which has 142 stores and more than £1bn of annual sales, last week became the first high-street business to enter into such a process.

France expects Group of 20 nations will agree to a debt moratorium for African nations in a conference call later Wednesday, an official at the Elysee Palace said. President Emmanuel Macron has been pushing for debt relief to support African nations caught up in the Covid-19 pandemic and on Monday called for a massive cancellation of the continent’s sovereign debt, Bloomberg News reported. A moratorium would allow African countries “to take a breath and not pay interest,” Macron told Radio France Internationale in an interview released Wednesday.

British fashion brands Oasis and Warehouse have fallen into administration, threatening over 2,000 jobs and joining a growing list of store groups pushed over the edge by the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reported. Deloitte, appointed as administrator to the Oasis Warehouse group owned by Icelandic bank Kaupthing on Wednesday, said that 202 of the retailers’ employees would be made redundant, 1,801 furloughed and 41 head office staff retained. The brands trade from 92 branches across the Oasis Warehouse group’s leasehold stores, with 437 concessions located in third party retailers.

Ukraine’s largest private power producer, DTEK, which recently suspended its debt payments, is ready to submit proposals on debt restructuring to creditors, the company’s CEO said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. DTEK, owned by the country’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, missed payments of coupons on Eurobonds and interest on bank debt as it struggled to minimize effects of the economic crisis.

Swiss-based sporting goods group Intersport’s main franchisee in Sweden has filed for a court-led restructuring as it seeks to avert bankruptcy in the face of falling sales because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. Intersport AB, which employs about 2,000 people, said in a statement on Tuesday that it needs temporary relief from creditors to weather the downturn after a sharp decline in sales left it without adequate cash to pay all of its bills. “This is an extraordinary measure ...

Italy’s companies and small businesses desperately need the 740 billion euros ($807 billion) the government pledged to keep the economy afloat through the pandemic recession, Bloomberg New reported. By the time the money arrives, it might be too late. Banks, which have to channel most of the aid to recipients, “have to follow standard procedures because part of the financing risk remains on their books,” said Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffe, professor of business strategy at Bocconi University in Milan. “This normally takes weeks.

The French government was forced to revise its economic and financial forecasts for the second time in less than a week after President Emmanuel Macron extended the lockdown to combat the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported. France will base an emergency budget on economic output contracting 8% this year, instead of 6% as it had planned last week. Extra spending to support companies and workers through the confinement will increase the budget deficit, and the situation could get worse still as there are uncertainties about the health crisis in Asia, the economy in the U.S.

Finance ministers and central-bank governors logging in for this week’s virtual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank will say the right thing, promising to work together to confront the economic fallout of the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported in a commentary. The question is whether they will do the right thing and take concrete steps to allow the necessary cooperation and coordination. Many countries have responded poorly to the pandemic and its economic consequences.

Women's fashion retailers Oasis and Warehouse are expected to appoint administrators soon, putting about 2,300 jobs at risk, BBC News reported. The owner of the High Street brands, Icelandic bank Kaupthing, had been in talks to sell the businesses before the coronavirus crisis. However, the crisis, which has seen many shops temporarily close, has knocked the legs from under the sale. The fashion retailers are expected to appoint Deloitte as administrators.