Spanish thermal solar power and engineering firm Abengoa signed an agreement with its creditor banks on Thursday for a 106-million-euro ($116.1 million) credit line to help avert what would be Spain's biggest-ever bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The loan will be used for general corporate necessities, Abengoa said in a statement to the stock market regulator. It is using some shares held in the affiliate Abengoa Yield as collateral, it said. The banks also agreed to free up a further 7 million euros related to a previous loan, backed by the Abengoa Yield shares.

A day after worse than expected borrowing figures, the U.K. Office for National Statistics revised down its estimate of gross domestic product growth in the third quarter of the year from 0.5 percent quarter on quarter to 0.4 percent, the Financial Times reported today. It also revised down the annual rate of growth to 2.1 percent from 2.3 percent, adding to evidence that the economic recovery may be losing momentum. The Treasury stressed that the UK still had the joint fastest growth rate in the G7, along with the US, and employment is at a record high.

Vroom & Dreesman, the largest department store chain in the Netherlands, has been granted protection from creditors after failed efforts to turn around the troubled business, Reuters reported today. V&D, with 10,000 employees at 62 stores across the Netherlands, has struggled to cut costs after posting losses in 2014. "It is a huge disappointment that we have to seek protection from our creditors," Chief Executive John van der Ent said in a statement.

Creditor banks of Spanish energy and engineering firm Abengoa have agreed to inject 113 million euros ($123 million) into the debt-laden company, Reuters reported today. The lenders will receive shares in Abengoa Yield worth more than double of the loan as a guarantee, the sources also said, adding that Spain's official credit institute would also participate in the loan with 8.7 million euros. Read more.

National Bank of Greece said yesterday that it had agreed to sell a majority stake in Finansbank of Turkey to Qatar National Bank for 2.75 billion euros, or about $3 billion, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. The Greek bank began exploring “strategic options” for its Turkish business last year after the European Central Bank identified a capital shortfall at National Bank of Greece and at other Greek lenders.

A special working group must prepare by year-end measures for state support of VEB, Russia's state development bank, its chairman Vladimir Dmitriev said today, Reuters reported. The Russian authorities are considering support for VEB worth 1.2 trillion roubles ($16.85 billion) which aims to help it deal with bad loans and repay external debt. Dmitriev said that the bank was responsible for "certain tasks" which might negatively affect its balance sheet at some point, so the state must share responsibility for funding such operations and provide "other forms" of support if needed.

Government action to address domestic and European Union policies that cripple Britain's steel sector are still not enough to secure the industry's future, a parliamentary committee report said yesterday, Reuters reported. Nearly 4,000 jobs were lost in the British steel industry in October alone -- equivalent to about a fifth of the workforce - as Tata Steel buckled under pressure from decade-low steel prices ST-CRU-IDX, while SSI UK and Caparo Industries shut up shop.

Intrum Justitia AB plans to step up the pace of acquisitions as it aims to increase its presence in credit management services in coming years, according to acting Chief Executive Officer Erik Forsberg, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Europe’s largest debt collector now wants to do “at least two, or more, acquisitions, on average over a few years,” Forsberg said in his first full interview since taking the helm from Lars Wollung on Nov. 2. In May, Wollung had set the takeover target at two smaller companies a year, on average, over five years.

New quarterly figures from the Central Bank show mortgage debt declined by €61 million to €60.3 billion during the third quarter of 2015, the Irish Times reported. The annual rate of decline in loans for home purchase was 0.8 per cent at end-September 2015, following a 1.4 per cent decline at end-June. Fixed-rate mortgages increased by €839 million, or 14.6 per cent, during the third quarter to stand at €6.6 billion.

Failed Icelandic bank Glitnir said on Thursday it had got agreement from the central bank to begin paying out billions of dollars owed to creditors since it collapsed in 2008, Reuters reported. Iceland's financial system crashed during the global financial crisis triggering the imposition capital controls to protect the country's krona currency. These rules have prevented creditors of Iceland's failed banks from recovering money generated from asset sales.