Creditors to troubled casual-dining group PizzaExpress Ltd., which has around $1.4 billion of debts, expect to see much of their money returned and the brand survive, according to analyst Helen Rodriguez at CreditSights in London, Bloomberg News reported. “There’s a brand and a business for PizzaExpress, it just has the wrong balance sheet and needs to reduce its debt,” she said. “If it were to restructure, someone would certainly want to start again with the business.” That will come as a relief to many in the U.K., for whom the chain is something of a national icon.

A London court order for Ukraine’s largest lender PrivatBank to repay two of its defaulted bonds in full plus interest is a boost for their holders, but looks set to add to Kiev’s complex tussle with the bank’s former owner, oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, Reuters reported. The ruling by the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) was originally made in June but the exact details have only just emerged after the bonds’ trustee got approval to communicate them to investors.

Greek jewelry maker Folli Follie’s Links of London appointed Deloitte as an administrator on Wednesday, putting about 350 jobs at risk and adding to the list of high-profile retailers to run into trouble on Britain’s high street, Reuters reported. Links of London was founded in 1990, offering unisex jewelry and lifestyle accessories, with luxury products designed after London’s art, music, and film scenes at the time. Links of London said on its website it was unable to process any online sales, but directed people to its stores.

The High Court this week ruled a vulture fund could not enforce a repossession order, pending insolvency proceedings, The Sun reported. Ex-model Flood and restaurateur hubby Ronan Ryan have been locked in a long legal battle to keep the €900,000 house in Clontarf, Dublin. But after facing down the eviction threat, Pamela last night told the Irish Sun of her relief at keeping the family pad. The 48-year-old mum-of-four beamed: “It’s much better news than before. We’re better, it’s a lot better than it was.

Boris Johnson can seize on Germany’s impending recession to make the most life outside the European Union, a senior financial advisor has said, the Daily Express reported. And Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, which claims to be the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisation, also said the UK leaving the EU without a deal could also send the Eurozone into a tailspin.

In a related story, Reuters reported that talks with potential strategic and private equity investors to rescue Thomas Cook’s German tour business going well and many investors have expressed interest in the company as a whole or in its branches, the insolvent company’s liquidator said. “The investor talks are in full swing, running well and giving hope,” Julia Kappel-Gnirs, a liquidator of Thomas Cook Germany’s Bucher Reisen and Oeger Tours units, said in a statement on Wednesday. The travel firm on Wednesday said it was cancelling all travel operations until Dec.

Hays Travel will buy all Thomas Cook's British travel agent shops, potentially saving up to 2,500 jobs, Britain's insolvency agency said on Wednesday, in a rare reprieve for high streets across the country, Business Insider reported. Thomas Cook, the world's oldest travel company whose shops have been a feature of British town centers for generations, collapsed last month, and its UK business went into liquidation. Hays Travel will acquire all 555 stores and look to re-employ former employees from Thomas Cook's retail operations, Britain's Insolvency Service said in a statement.

German industrial production rose 0.3 per cent in August, surpassing economists’ forecasts and providing a glimmer of hope that the sharp contraction in the engine room of the eurozone’s biggest economy may be less severe than feared, the Financial Times reported. Excluding the typically volatile energy and construction sectors, production increased by a healthy 0.7 per cent from the previous month, as an increase in intermediate and capital goods more than offset a decline in consumer goods.

Sean Dunne, once one of Ireland’s richest men, told an American court last week that he earns just €200 a month and is therefore unable to pay a sanction of $9,330 (€8,500) imposed on him earlier this year, The Irish Times reported. “As I am now bankrupt, I have great difficulty in obtaining work,” said the one-time Irish property tycoon in a sworn affidavit dated October 3rd.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the global body is facing its worst cash crisis in about a decade and runs the risk of defaulting on payments to staff and vendors, Bloomberg News reported. Many members are behind on their payments, forcing the UN to cut back on travel, purchases of goods and services and conferences, Guterres said. The cash crunch is “undermining the implementation of mandates decided by inter-governmental bodies,” he added in a statement on Tuesday.