Creditors of Abu Dhabi-based Gulf Marine Services (GMS) are close to hiring an adviser to help them renegotiate debt terms, two sources familiar with the matter said, Reuters reported. London-listed GMS, which provides support vessels for offshore oil and gas and other energy installations, has been hurt by a downturn in the oil and gas services industry after a slump in oil prices in recent years reduced demand.

Poland’s government has proposed the country’s first balanced central government budget in three decades, as the ruling Law and Justice party tries to boost its reputation for economic management ahead of October’s parliamentary election, the Financial Times reported. Since coming to power in 2015, the socially conservative Law and Justice has sharply boosted welfare spending, with handouts to pensioners and families playing a key role in cementing support for the party among older and less well-off Poles.

French media mogul Arnaud Lagardère amassed more than €200m of debt at his private holding company, more than the current value of his shares in the publicly traded conglomerate that bears his name, according to unpublished accounts seen by the Financial Times.

The largest shareholder in Carpetright has agreed to take on the company’s substantial debt pile and open talks over long-term funding, providing a degree of certainty to the troubled UK flooring retailer as it pushes to turn itself round, the Financial Times reported. Carpetright said on Tuesday that Meditor, a private investment vehicle controlled by former hedge fund manager Talal Shakerchi, would purchase its £40.7m revolving credit facility from its current lenders AIB and NatWest. The company was not involved in the talks between Meditor and the lending banks.

Gayle Killilea’s lawyer is asking the judge in her husband Sean Dunne’s American bankruptcy trial to block an order from a different court compelling Killilea’s financial adviser to provide details of the couple’s finances, including the transfer and sale of Walford – once Ireland’s most expensive home, The Irish Times reported. Trustee attorney Timothy Miltenberger said his client wants to examine Dublin accountant James Ryan to identify assets to pay the $18.1 million (€16.2 million) a jury ordered Ms Killilea to pay the trustee in June.

The gloom hanging over the German economy has deepened after a closely watched survey of the country’s business leaders this month found that sentiment had sunk to its lowest level in seven years, the Financial Times reported. An intensifying trade war between the US and China is weighing particularly heavily on Germany’s export-focused economy, prompting calls for the government in Berlin to ditch its commitment to running a budget surplus to provide a fiscal stimulus.

Brussels is planning to simplify the eurozone’s complex budgetary rules to provide governments with softer debt reduction targets that do not push struggling economies into trouble during downturns, the Financial Times reported. In what is set to be one of the most politically sensitive debates for the next European Commission, officials are considering ways to rewrite the bloc’s Stability and Growth Pact, which has come under fire for being impossible to enforce and overly flexible for governments that are in breach of the rules.

German banks grappling with the burden of negative interest rates are fighting back against a proposal to ban them from passing on the costs to their retail depositors, the Financial Times reported. They warn that such a move could unleash “dangerous instability” on financial markets. Markus Söder, the minister-president of Bavaria, proposed the ban last week in response to fears that banks could start charging their depositors if, as expected, the European Central Bank cuts interest rates further into negative territory next month. The idea is gaining political traction in Berlin.

Investors just delivered a body blow to a company that was once Scandinavia’s biggest conglomerate, Bloomberg News reported. On Monday, the last remnant of the East Asiatic Company of Denmark lost more than 40% of its market value after a key creditor said it breached debt covenants. The development represents an existential threat to EAC, now called Santa Fe Group A/S, and has left in tatters what was once an icon of corporate Denmark. Gabriella Sahlman, an investment director at Proventus Capital Partners, told Bloomberg that the creditor thinks “there is a breach of covenants.

A number of “non-binding” offers are on the table for Harland and Wolff which, if successful, could ensure a new future for the historic east Belfast shipyard which is in the hands of administrators, The Irish Times reported. According to Michael Jennings and Brian Murphy of BDO NI, who were appointed as joint administrators of the yard at the beginning of this month, there has been a “healthy level of interest” from potential buyers.