Sweden is witnessing a jump in bankruptcies this month with the rate among hotels and restaurants set to triple to 3.6 from 1.2 per day a year ago, and 3.1 retailers per day going under versus 1.8 per day a year earlier, credit information firm UC said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The rate of bankruptcies in the hotel and restaurant segmentwill probably accelerate further, UC said. UC on April 1 said bankruptcies in the restaurant and hotel sector shot up 123% in March, with the transport sector also seeing a big jump, up 105%.

Supermarket chain Tesco is among those that have expressed an interest in Carluccio’s sites and other assets after the Italian chain collapsed into administration last month, the Financial Times reported. FRP Advisory, the insolvency specialist running the sale process, has received offers for Carluccio’s locations from Tesco, Boparan Holdings, the company behind the Giraffe and Ed’s Easy Diner chains, and Three Hills Capital, owner of the burger brand Byron, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations.

More than 15,000 U.K. companies fell into “significant distress” in the first three months of 2020 as the virus shutdown took its toll on the economy, according to a quarterly survey published on Friday by insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor, Bloomberg News reported. That’s the highest tally ever recorded by the survey and the largest quarterly increase since the end of 2017, bringing the total number of British companies falling behind on debts of up to 5,000 pounds ($6,220) to more than half a million.

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.