B2B digital music services provider 7Digital is flirting with administration, the UK equivalent of bankruptcy, after investors rejected a plan to issue more shares for cash which the company says its needs to survive, Hypebot reported. 7digital Group Plc is a publicly traded digital music and radio services platform. 7digital offers both B2B services for digital media partners and 7digital branded direct-to-consumer music download stores.

Casino Guichard Perrachon on Thursday unveiled a plan to simplify the complex shareholding structure for its Latin American operations, sending shares in its Brazilian and Colombian units soaring. The restructuring would result in Casino controlling its Latin American business in Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina through a 41.4% stake in Brazilian unit Grupo Pao de Acucar (GPA).

The EU is in a state of suspended animation over Italy’s budgetary woes. Wednesday was supposed to be the day when Brussels gained clarity over Rome’s intentions to step back from deficit-busting spending measures and avoid falling into an EU disciplinary process, the Financial Times reported. But clarity, there came none. Italy’s fraying anti-establishment coalition — which is divided between budget moderates and hardliners — decided on Wednesday to delay formally setting itself a lower deficit target for 2020.

Hedge funds that bet on the demise of Rallye SA will get the pay day they chased for years after a bond auction to settle derivatives linked to the indebted retail group, Bloomberg News reported. Buyers of credit-default swaps on the parent of French supermarket chain Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA will collect 87.5% of the amount insured, according to final auction results on Thursday. That equates to a payout of $522 million, based on data from the International Swaps & Derivatives Association.

The eurozone countries' gross domestic product (GDP) is set to grow by 0.3 percent in the second quarter of 2019, the German Ifo Institute for Economic Research said in its economic outlook for the eurozone published here on Wednesday, Xinhuanet reported. Ongoing trade conflicts, political uncertainties and a cooling-off of the global economy would likely see GDP growth in the eurozone decline slightly compared to the 0.4 percent growth registered in the first quarter of 2019.

German luxury TV manufacturer Loewe will cease business operations on 1st July due to insufficient funds, according to reports. Yesterday, German publication Spiegel Online reported that Loewe was bankrupt and planning to shut down operations this weekend, What Hi-Fi? reported. "For reasons of insolvency law, we are therefore obligated to protect our creditors to provisionally suspend operations on 1 July 2019 with the least possible cost burden," said Loewe managing director Ralf Vogt.

An obscure clause in government bond contracts may help the European Central Bank clear a key hurdle to launching a fresh stimulus programme by allowing it to own even more government debt, according to central bank officials, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. With the euro zone's growth and inflation prospects dimming, ECB President Mario Draghi has strongly hinted at more monetary easing in the form of interest rate cuts or new asset purchases.

Norwegian oil and gas rig operator Dolphin Drilling filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, leading creditors to seize its key assets in a restructuring that will see the company maintain operations, Reuters reported. Formerly known as Fred. Olsen Energy, Dolphin Drilling ASA had debt of just over $1 billion at the end of 2018 and a net loss for the year of almost $300 million, its annual report shows.

Ireland faces 85,000 potential job losses and a sharp economic slowdown if the UK crashes out of the EU in October, the country’s finance minister has said, in a stark warning about the effect of a no-deal Brexit, the Financial Times reported. Paschal Donohoe said 50,000 to 55,000 jobs could be lost within two years of the UK exiting the EU without a deal, with another 30,000 at risk in the medium term if there were no resolution to political chaos in Westminster over Britain’s departure from the bloc.

Two years ago Austria broke records in debt markets by selling €3.5bn of 100-year bonds, the Financial Times reported. Now the central European country is eyeing another “century bond” as investors clamour for long-dated instruments in a world awash in ultra-low, and even negative, sovereign yields. Vienna plans to issue €3bn of five-year bonds and also test investor demand for up to €1bn of 100-year bonds, according to one banker close to the deal. Last time, in September 2017, the century bond was heavily oversubscribed, drawing bids of €11.4bn.