Revenue has succeeded in its High Court application to have a provisional liquidator appointed to a Co Meath-based bus company, The Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Richard Humphreys on Wednesday appointed insolvency practitioner Aidan Murphy, of Crowe Ireland, as provisional liquidator to Enfield Coaches Ltd, of Rathcore, Enfield, Co Meath. The court heard that the company provides coach and related transport services. At the High Court, Arthur Cunningham, for the Collector General of the Revenue Commissioners, said his client was owed €39,000 as unpaid PAYE, PRSI and interest.

Germany’s leading economic research institutes have urged the government to abandon its commitment to balanced budgets, also known as the “black zero” policy, as they slashed their growth forecasts and warned that the country’s crucial industrial sector was already in recession, the Financial Times reported. “Sticking with the black zero as an end in itself would be fundamentally wrong.

Croatian food group Fortenova Grupa, formerly known as Agrokor, said on Wednesday it had put four units, including two tourism agencies, up for sale as it starts to divest non-core assets, Reuters reported. The other companies are a construction firm and a soybean storage and processing company. “We offer for sale two major tourist agencies in southeastern Europe, Atlas and Kompas. They control 20% of the markets in Croatia and Slovenia and more than 15% in Montenegro. Combined they serve some 1.2 million travellers a year,” Fortenova said in a statement.

The euro area’s manufacturing sector slumped in September as German factories experienced their worst month since the depths of the financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported. IHS Markit’s index for manufacturing in the euro region came in at 45.7 last month, slightly higher than the initial estimate of 45.6, but still the lowest level since October 2012. New orders saw the sharpest contraction in almost seven years, with demand weakening both at home and abroad. A measure of sentiment stayed subdued amid concerns over the U.S.-China trade war and Brexit.

The U.K.’s accounting watchdog opened an investigation into Ernst & Young’s audit of Thomas Cook Group Plc’s financial statements after the 178-year-old tour operator collapsed, Bloomberg News reported. The Financial Reporting Council began the probe amid a growing political outcry over the failure last month, which cost thousands of jobs and left tourists stranded across Europe. The Big Four accounting firms have come under intense scrutiny in the U.K. following the collapse of outsourcing contractor Carillion PLC, bakery chain Patisserie Holdings Plc and other companies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Nicolas Maduro briefly discussed Caracas’ debt obligations to Russia last week during a visit to Moscow by the Venezuelan leader, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, without providing details, Reuters reported. Close ally Moscow has acted as a lender of last resort for Caracas, with the Russian government and oil giant Rosneft (ROSN.MM) providing at least $17 billion in loans and credit lines since 2006. In November 2017, Russia agreed to restructure Venezuela’s sovereign debt of $3.15 billion, with repayments over 10 years.

The UK government has revealed that its tax authority has reported itself to the police watchdog four times over the suicides of individuals facing the loan charge — the contentious policy which has left many people facing crippling tax bills, the Financial Times reported. The loan charge, which was introduced by HM Revenue & Customs in April, requires people who used loan-based avoidance schemes to pay tax on up to 20 years of income in a single financial year.

Harland and Wolff, the Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic, has been sold by owner Dolphin Drilling to infrastructure specialists InfraStrata for 6 million pounds ($7.4 million), saving the facility from closure, Reuters reported. InfraStrata said Harland and Wolff’s multi-purpose fabrication facility, quaysides and docking facilities were ideally suited for the energy infrastructure industry and the company’s projects. All 79 workers who did not opt for voluntary redundancy earlier in the year will be retained, the company said.

Ljubljana airport should be able to replace most flights lost in the collapse of Slovenia’s Adria Airways within a year and a half, its manager and owner Fraport said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Fraport is in talks with airlines to replace Adria flights, which accounted for 11 of 29 regular routes serving Ljubljana, Zmago Skobir, business director of Fraport Slovenia, told a news conference. “There is demand for these destinations and we have received the first signals that they will be replaced,” Skobir said.

Jamie Oliver received a £5.2m dividend payout despite profits across his restaurant, food and media group almost halving last year as the celebrity chef’s UK chain collapsed, the Financial Times reported. Profit before tax across the group, covering restaurant, licensing and media operations, fell from £14.5m in 2017 to £8m in the year to the end of 2018 as a result of £9.9m exceptional costs from the failure. Jamie’s Italian went into administration in May after a rapid expansion resulted in high rent and business rates.