Mike Ashley said Christmas shopping has been so bad for retailers that it “will literally smash them to pieces”, in a dire warning that sent shares in his Sports Direct chain sharply lower and spread more gloom on UK high streets, the Financial Times reported. Shares in Debenhams, Next and Marks and Spencer all dropped more than 3 per cent on a day when the broader market was flat. Helen Connolly, chief executive of fashion retailer Bonmarché, echoed Mr Ashley’s sentiments. She warned that conditions were “unprecedented” and “significantly worse” than during the financial crisis.

Investors from Canada and Asia may offer a much-needed relief for Poland’s fledgling corporate bond market, hammered by the country’s largest corporate default and scandals that undermined trust in its banking watchdog, Bloomberg News reported. With global growth set to fizzle amid rising trade tensions, a unit of Canada’s largest lender, Toronto-Dominion Bank, is looking to invest in Polish bonds to capitalize on the nation’s fast-expanding economy.

Troubled low-cost African carrier Fastjet Plc said on Thursday it had enough cash to operate until Dec. 21 and that it had met the conditions for an open offer and equity refinancing to raise funds, Reuters reported. The company in September announced a fundraising and equity refinancing aimed at increasing its equity base by at least $40 million, which will give the airline enough working capital until the end of 2019. The airline said it had cash balance of $7 million as of Wednesday, of which $6.5 million was restricted cash held inside Zimbabwe.

Famar, a contract manufacturer to pharmaceutical industries, has completed a 174 million euro ($197 million) debt restructuring and secured new funds from private equity-backed Pillarstone to strengthen its capital position, Reuters reported. Pillarstone is a platform set up by private equity firm KKR and John Davison in 2015 to partner with European banks to create value by managing their on-balance sheet non-core assets. Pillarstone’s Greek subsidiary has been licensed by the Bank of Greece to provide long-term capital to large corporate borrowers and manage banks’ sour loans.

Credit Suisse’s plans to buy back as much as SFr3bn of shares and modestly increase its dividend received a lukewarm reception from analysts and investors, who were pushing for more capital to be returned after a sharp fall in the stock, the Financial Times reported. The Swiss bank said it expected to repurchase SFr1bn ($1bn) in each of the next two years and would attempt to buy back a further SFr1bn if market conditions allow, while increasing the dividend by 5 per cent a year.

Britons may not get a second referendum on European Union membership, but tonight’s vote of confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May among Conservative lawmakers is a proxy for it: The elected representatives of a party whose supporters chose overwhelmingly to leave the EU will fight over which vision of Brexit makes more sense. Nearly all want to honor the result of the 2016 referendum; they just disagree over how to do that.

Italy’s rail company Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) is working to get airlines easyJet or Delta involved in the rescue of ailing carrier Alitalia, Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio was quoted as saying by union sources on Wednesday. Last month state-appointed commissioners running Alitalia accepted a binding purchase offer by FS, Reuters reported. The flagship airline had been put on sale after being in special administration since early last year.

London-based augmented reality startup Blippar is said to be facing administration and is “on the brink of collapse” after a dispute between its investors, British luxury property developer Nick Candy and Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd. A report by The Times said Khazanah has blocked an emergency fundraising by the unicorn startup, causing Blippar to reach out to its shareholders, saying it had been left with “no current option other than to give notice to start insolvency proceedings”.

Losses more than doubled at Dublin-headquartered social media monitoring company NewsWhip last year as the company invested heavily in its technology platform as it looks to grow recurring subscription revenues. Founded by Paul Quigley and Andrew Mullaney in 2011, NewsWhip uses predictive data and analytics to identify breaking news stories of relevance to their clients. The company has more than 500 of the world’s leading publishers, brands and agencies as customers, including big names such as Reebok, the Washington Post, IBM, Ford, Condé Nast, L’Oréal and Walmart.

The European Central Bank didn’t overstep its mandate by setting up a quantitative easing (QE) programme to stave off deflation, judges at the European Union’s top court ruled, the Irish Times reported. The ECB’s programme “for the purchase of government bonds on secondary markets does not infringe EU law,” the EU Court of Justice said, dismissing the latest in a series of challenges from critics who argue the tool deployed by ECB president Mario Draghi clashes with a ban on so-called monetary financing.