European companies have been rushing to sell bonds as credit has become the apple of investors’ eyes. Yet there are risks that this new flood of supply onto the market could curtail the recent rally in corporate bonds over coming weeks, The Wall Street Journal reported. There has been a surprisingly strong comeback in the European credit market since January, and many European companies are taking advantage of this renewed surge in demand to issue better-quality investment-grade bonds.

The Dutch government has taken a shareholding in Air France-KLM in an attempt to protect the country’s economic interests in the carrier, escalating tensions between Paris and The Hague, the Financial Times reported. Wopke Hoekstra, Netherlands’ finance minister, announced that his government had acquired a 12.68 per cent stake in the Air France-KLM holding group in recent weeks and will aim to build a shareholding equal to the French state at 14.3 per cent.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development may start discussions with the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) over its privatisation later this year, the EBRD’s manager in the South Caucasus country said. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev ordered in 2015 the privatisation of the oil-rich country’s biggest bank after a clean-up to get rid of distressed assets resulting from poor management, Reuters reported. Two years later the state-run IBA proposed a plan to restructure $3.3 billion of its debt, later receiving approval from creditors holding 93.9 percent of the affected debt.

Bank of Ireland’s chief financial officer Andrew Keating expects Irish mortgage interest rates, which have fallen in the past five years, to start increasing again from here on – even though he believes the European Central Bank (ECB) may hold its main rate at zero until 2022, The Irish Times reported. Mr Keating said this was due to the increased amount of expensive shareholders’ money, or capital, that Irish banks have to hold in reserve against mortgages. This is required because of the scale of the mortgage arrears crisis in the Republic in the wake of the 2008 crash.

Hammerson has ramped up property sales in a bid to reduce debt after a crisis in UK retail dealt a blow to the value of its portfolio last year and resulted in a full-year loss, the Financial Times reported. The shopping centre landlord that owns European and UK malls including London’s Brent Cross, said on Monday that it had sold £570m of properties in 2018 at an average discount to net asset value of 7 per cent. It planned to sell a further £500m to £900m in 2019 despite a “tough” market.

Yildiz Holding AS, a debt laden Turkish food conglomerate, plans to sell its Jacob’s cracker unit and production facilities in the U.K. this year, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The owner of McVitie’s digestives and Godiva chocolates may offload the entire business or a stake to an investor, the people said, asking not to be named because the talks are confidential, Bloomberg News reported. The company is working with Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. on the sale, the people said.

Societe Generale SA is drawing up plans to cut jobs at its investment bank and find a partner for its cash-equity business in a bid to offset increasing cost pressure from regulation, people familiar with the matter said. The bank could cut hundreds or even thousands of jobs at its global banking and investor solutions unit, including roles in support functions such as finance and human resources, one person familiar with the situation said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential, Bloomberg News reported.

Business confidence in Germany this month slid to its lowest level since December 2014 in the latest sign of weakness in the Eurozone’s largest economy, the Financial Times reported. Financiers views soured on both the current economic conditions and the country’s future outlook, according to the latest business climate index published by the Ifo Institute think tank. The gauge fell more sharply than expected to 98.5 in February from a revised level of 99.3 in January. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a reading of 99.

Eurozone economies will be paid to carry out labour market reforms and finance crisis-era investments from the single currency’s new budget, according to a Franco-German blueprint, the Financial Times reported. A four-page paper from Paris and Berlin’s finance ministries, seen by the Financial Times, lays out possible spending tasks and the legal set up of a “eurozone budgetary instrument”. It is the first attempt from the EU’s two biggest member states to flesh out how the eurozone budget should operate after European leaders agreed to set up the tool last December.

Top banks led by HSBC have taken more than half a billion pounds in exceptional charges to cover a rise in defaults after Brexit, but other leading lenders are not as pessimistic on the UK’s economic outlook, creating a growing divide on strategy among Britain’s financial institutions, the Financial Times reported. HSBC, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland have all set aside extra cash in the belief that standard economic models would not fully cover the risks of a disorderly Brexit, while rivals such as Lloyds and Santander have dismissed the need for extra provisions.