Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA just can’t seem to put its troubles behind it. After more than a year of digging itself out from a collapse that ended in a state takeover, the Tuscan lender faces renewed concerns about its capital and profitability, Bloomberg News reported. Along with Banca Carige SpA’s struggles, that’s adding to the perception that Italian banking at large is still far from fixed. Shares of the world’s oldest bank dropped in Milan trading after the European Central Bank highlighted weaknesses in the Italian lender’s capital and profitability.

Shares in Debenhams, the British department store chain that is fighting for survival, plunged as much as 22 percent on Friday as its new interim chairman began the task of trying to find a consensus among investors on the way forward, Reuters reported. On Thursday, two major Debenhams shareholders - Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct and Middle Eastern investor Landmark Group - forced Chief Executive Sergio Bucher off the board and Chairman Ian Cheshire out of the company following a drop in Christmas sales.

Eurozone labour productivity has stopped growing for the first time in a decade, adding to fears about its economic climate, the Financial Times reported. Four of the five largest eurozone economies had negative annual labour productivity growth in the third quarter of 2018 — the first time since 2009 there has been such an across-the-board fall. The data were confirmed by updated figures on Friday from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency. The disappointing productivity growth figures follow a flow of poor economic data from the eurozone in the second half of 2018.

A venture led by Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. scooped up Flybe Group Plc for a penny a share, all but wiping out the value of the British regional carrier hit by dwindling passenger numbers, higher oil prices and uncertainty surrounding Brexit, Bloomberg News reported. Virgin, Cyrus Capital and airport operator Stobart Group Ltd. agreed to purchase Flybe for 2.2 million pounds ($2.8 million), according to a statement Friday.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA is preparing to sell covered bonds and will contact possible investors as soon as next week, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Monte Paschi is attempting to issue the debt after it was unable to complete the second tranche of a bond sale last year amid market turmoil, Bloomberg News reported. The lender said in a statement late Friday that the European Central Bank warned in a letter that its capital position was weaker after abandoning last year’s sale.

More than 20 U.K. retail chains instructed accountancy firm Deloitte LLP in the past two months to assess whether they are able to restructure their debt, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the information, Bloomberg News reported. The accountancy firm is considering whether the chains -- mostly fashion and homeware retailers -- can use a so-called company voluntary arrangement to close stores. The process allows businesses to leave behind lease liabilities and keep operating, but puts a financial burden on landlords.

Britain’s Ovo Energy said on Friday it had taken over the customers of independent power supplier Economy Energy, which ceased trading this week. Economy Energy became the ninth supplier to stop trading in the past year, after an attempt to increase competitiveness prompted the launch of dozens of independent traders in Britain, Reuters reported. Ovo said it now had 1.5 million retail customers in Britain after taking over Economy Energy’s 235,000 clients as well as the 290,000 customers of Spark Energy, another small company that stopped operations last year.

Norwegian offshore drilling rig firm Seadrill Ltd said on Thursday that Chief Financial Officer Mark Morris will step down following completion of the company’s financial restructuring, Reuters reported. The company, controlled by Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen, said it has begun a formal search process and that Morris will remain in the role until the end of June to make the transition possible. Separately, Seadrill Partners said Morris would step down as chief executive officer of that firm at the end of June.

French manufacturing output fell in November, a further indicator that trade uncertainty and political tension in Europe could be cooling the eurozone, the Financial Times reported. The 1.3 per cent month on month slide in industrial output was worse than the forecast in a Reuters survey of no change, following two months of growth. Manufacturing was also down 1.4 per cent in November, a 1.2 per cent decrease from November last year, the French National Institute for Economic Studies reported on Thursday. Manufacturing output remained down 1.0 per cent over the quarter.

France’s top central banker has warned the European Central Bank to take a “gradual and pragmatic” approach to ditching its crisis-era stimulus, as the world’s monetary policymakers react to fears of a global economic slowdown, the Financial Times reported. In dovish remarks François Villeroy de Galhau, the Banque de France governor and a member of the ECB’s governing council, said in Luxembourg on Thursday that the ECB should keep its “options open in the face of current uncertainty”.