Eurozone industrial production growth slowed slightly in September after a bumper annual reading in August, the Financial Times reported. Seasonally adjusted production rose 3.3 per cent from a year earlier, according to official eurozone data agency Eurostat, a notch above analysts’ expectations of 3.2 per cent. That compared to an upwardly-revised annual figure of 3.9 per cent in August, which had trounced expectations of a 2.6 per cent rise that month.

The European Commission talked up Greece’s reform drive, as creditors are beginning to prepare for a discussion on what a post-bailout landscape could look like for the debt-ridden state, Bloomberg News reported. “Greece has undertaken significant reform efforts across all policy areas,” the European Union’s executive arm said in a 187-page report assessing the country’s record of compliance with its bailout terms.

The Croatian government survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote early on Saturday that the opposition demanded over the handling of a debt crisis at the country's largest private firm Agrokor, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. In the vote, which followed 12 hours of a parliamentary debate, 59 deputies in the 151-seat parliament were in favor of the removal of the conservative-led cabinet, while 78 were opposed to it.

Companies in one of Europe’s fastest-growing industries depend on an unsustainable business model, according to some analysts and investors, with one hedge fund going as far as calling their stock worthless, Bloomberg News reported. Arrow Global Group Plc, Intrum Justitia AB and Lowell Group Ltd., which buy overdue debt such as cellphone and credit-card bills, are funding their purchases with borrowed money instead of earnings, said Bybrook Capital, a $1.4 billion hedge fund that’s betting against them.

Redx Pharma has returned to the land of the living. Last week, shares in the biotech group were reinstated on London’s junior market after its administrators packed their bags and quit Redx’s offices in Alderley Edge, the Financial Times reported. Hoorah. Not quite. The shares were 32p when they were frozen in May; when Aim lifted the suspension last week, they fell to 19p. That said, not many companies return from the netherworld of insolvency once the wind-up merchants take charge.

Monarch does not have the right to sell its airport takeoff and landing slots, potentially the most valuable remaining part of the failed airline, a court in London ruled on Wednesday, Reuters reported. In a blow to administrators seeking to recoup money, the High Court rejected Monarch’s claim that it must be allocated slots for summer 2018 and said they will be placed into a pool. “We are disappointed with today’s ruling and will be seeking leave to appeal as a matter of urgency,” Blair Nimmo, partner at KPMG and joint administrator of Monarch, said.

The private equity owner of Four Seasons, Britain’s largest care home operator, has proposed relinquishing control of the debt-laden company to its creditors for a “nominal sum”, having incurred £450m in losses, the Financial Times reported. Terra Firma’s move comes after the main creditors, H/2 Capital, suggested a debt-restructuring plan aimed at rescuing the struggling business. Under the US hedge fund’s proposition, Terra Firma would have kept an 11 per cent stake in the full business.

Mario Draghi has called on banks to cut costs instead of blaming the European Central Bank’s monetary policy for poor profitability, the Financial Times reported. The ECB president said at a conference to mark the third anniversary of the launch of the eurozone’s banking watchdog, the Single Supervisory Mechanism: “There is little evidence that negative rates are undermining banking profitability.” Instead, lenders in the region needed to look into cutting their operating costs to boost profits. The ECB cut rates into negative territory in the summer of 2014.

There is almost no precedent for what has happened to Greece since 2008. Yet despite the salutary counterexamples of emerging markets that let their currencies float to provide monetary stimulus, Greece has thus far determined to remain a member of the euro area, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Some attribute this to love: the latest Eurobarometer survey shows 64 per cent of Greeks support “a European economic and monetary union with one single currency, the euro”, while only 32 per cent are opposed.

The largest creditor in Four Seasons, the UK’s largest care provider, has rejected a proposed restructuring plan of its multi-million pound debt, leading to a bruising fight with its private-equity owner, the Financial Times reported. H/2 Capital has launched proposals that it argues create a business less heavily dependent on debt and does more to improve the care-home business. Four Seasons provides care to 17,000 people, and it has publicly said it will default on its debt next month, having failed to reach a deal with bondholders.