The Commercial Court is being asked to set aside the purported transfer of assets by businessman Alistair Tidey to his wife, Jane. The action has been brought by the deputy official assignee in bankruptcy arising out of purported transfers between the couple, one of which was described as a “sham” designed to put assets beyond the reach of Mr Tidey’s creditors, The Irish Times reported. The case was admitted to the fast-track Commercial Court list on Monday.

Ireland’s High Court on Monday granted creditor protection to Norwegian Air and its Irish subsidiaries, allowing the Oslo-based airline more time to restructure its massive debt, Reuters reported. Norwegian last month asked the court to begin a so-called examinership legal process as the carrier seeks to stave off collapse amid the coronavirus pandemic. The judge said he had agreed to protection of Oslo-based Norwegian Air as well as its Irish subsidiaries as the survival of each was dependent on the survival of the other.

Ten years ago today, Ireland went into the arms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Following weeks of speculation, rumours and semi-denial, the government accepted the inevitable. Economic sovereignty was lost, The Irish Times reported. It was the most extraordinary and the most depressing moment in Irish economic history.

A petition to secure High Court protection for a chocolate food products company was prepared in secret from its board, the High Court was told, The Irish Times reported. Ina’s Kitchen Desserts is trading, no one is refusing to trade with it, and it also has a plentiful supply of finance to meet its requirements, said Bernard Dunleavy SC for the majority shareholder Starkane. Counsel said Starkane knew nothing of the petition for examinership brought by a director and 10 per cent shareholder Barry Broderick until it was moved.

Irish food group Greencore has announced a £90 million (€101 million) share placing to shore up its balance sheet after it reported an 81 per cent plunge in its annual profit due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Irish Times reported. The Dublin-headquartered company said the recent resurgence of Covid-19 cases across the UK, and the imposition of new restrictions, had “hampered the recovery in demand in food-to-go categories”.

Norwegian Air has asked an Irish court to oversee a restructuring of its massive debt as it seeks to stave off collapse amid the coronavirus pandemic, the carrier said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Norway’s government on Nov. 9 rejected the airline’s plea for another injection of state funds, and the company said the following day it was at risk of having to halt operations in early 2021 unless it got access to more cash. Growing rapidly to become Europe’s third-largest low-cost airline and the biggest foreign carrier serving New York and other major U.S.

Ireland will be the eurozone’s biggest loser from a no-deal Brexit, which threatens to cause an economic “double whammy” on top of the fallout from rising coronavirus infections, the Irish central bank’s governor has warned, the Financial Times reported. Gabriel Makhlouf told the Financial Times that if the UK left the EU without a trade deal at the end of this year, the new tariffs on goods would hit Ireland’s agricultural and food sectors hardest, knocking 2 percentage points off the country’s economic growth next year.  “This whole process is lose-lose,” said Mr Makhlouf.

Overseas tourism revenues are likely to collapse by two-thirds this year as a result of Covid-19, an Oireachtas committee has been told. In 2019 the overseas market brought in €9 billion in revenue; this year it will be closer to €3 billion, The Irish Times reported. Foreign visitors account for 75 per cent of all tourism revenue earned in the State, members were told.

Up to 1,250 Irish businesses have been “recommended” for State-backed coronavirus loans, according to a senior official at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, The Irish Times reported. Declan Hughes, head of the department’s indigenous enterprise, SMEs and entrepreneurship division, said that as of last Friday banks operating the Government’s Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme had recommended 1,250 loans worth €64 million. Mr Hughes told the Oireachtas Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Employment that there had been “very significant interest” in the initiative.

Two Irish landlords of the liquidated Monsoon business have won a High Court challenge in which they claimed their leases to the women’s fashion stores remained in full force here despite a UK creditors arrangement, The Irish Times reported. Apperley Investments Ltd, Tailwind Investments Ltd and Martina Investments Ltd were landlords to the former Monsoon store on Dublin’s Grafton Street. RESAM Cork UC and RESAM Properties Ltd were landlords for the Monsoon store and the Accessorize store, both on Patrick Street, Cork.