Airbus announced plans to halt operations at its plants in France and Spain for four days as the coronavirus crisis spread from battered airlines to the manufacturing sector, The Irish Times reported. The most serious across-the-board disruption in Airbus production since a strike at then British partner BAE Systems in 1989 pushed its shares down 7 per cent as a rebound in other European shares quickly faltered.

King Felipe VI of Spain said on Sunday that he was renouncing his personal inheritance from his father, Juan Carlos, who has been implicated in a Swiss offshore account investigation, the International New York Times reported. King Felipe is also stripping his father of his stipend, in an apparent bid to sever any financial linkage between the Spanish royal household and the former monarch. The announcement came as King Felipe has himself risked getting entangled in the financial scandals centering on his father.

Spain’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a 27% interest rate applied by online bank WiZink to one of its credit cards was unjustified, a decision that could force other Spanish lenders to cut some of their rates, Reuters reported. Shares in Caixabank, Bankinter and Sabadell fell more than 3% after the much-awaited ruling on the view that it effectively sets guidelines for the sector, even though it was specifically about a WiZink card.

Telefónica posted a net loss for the fourth quarter, as restructuring costs and impairments from Mexico and Argentina underscored the challenges the company faces as its overhauls its business and reorients its strategy in Latin America, the Financial Times reported. The Spanish telecoms company said that revenues during the quarter dipped 4 per cent to €12.4bn, slightly beating the €12.38bn expected by analysts polled by Bloomberg. The fourth quarter net loss of €202m fell short of analyst expectations of a €715.7m net profit.

In a related story, the Financial Times reported that Spain’s central bank chief has warned its new leftwing government not to scrap a landmark labour reform that economists say is crucial to the country’s recovery. Pablo Hernández de Cos told the Financial Times that Spain’s competitiveness could be hit by moves such as a shift from company-level to sector-wide bargaining over wages and conditions — a priority for the ruling coalition. “The Spanish economy still needs to keep its competitiveness at a high level,” Mr Hernández de Cos said in an interview.

A Spanish magistrate has launched a criminal investigation into suspected account-fiddling at retailer Dia under its previous management, before Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman took over the near-insolvent company last year, Reuters reported. Magistrate Alejandro Abascal said in court documents seen by Reuters that he was looking into whether the company’s management, including then-CEO Ricardo Curras, manipulated Dia’s pre-tax earnings data in 2017 to make it falsely appear the company had reached financial targets.

Spanish engineering company Isolux said on Friday it had activated the formal process aimed at avoiding insolvency, as it battles to secure enough money to remain in business, the Stock Daily Dish reported. Under Spanish law, companies can enter into debt restructuring proceedings that give them up to four months to reach an agreement with creditors to avoid a full-blown insolvency process and a potential bankruptcy. Isolux has over 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in restructured debt, according to an update on its restructuring process published in December.

Brazilian carriers Telefonica Brasil and TIM Participações will consider acquiring assets from struggling rival Oi SA if they are put up for sale, executives from both companies said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. In September, Reuters reported that Oi was in talks with the local subsidiaries of Spain’s Telefonica SA and Telecom Italia SpA to sell assets and avoid insolvency.

Spain’s High Court will investigate allegations that Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman acted to depress the share price of DIA when trying to take control of the supermarket chain, a court document seen by Reuters showed, Reuters reported. Fridman’s LetterOne fund denied the allegations on Tuesday, saying in a statement they were “untrue and defamatory”. LetterOne rescued DIA from the brink of insolvency this year after the retailer’s market value fell by 90% in 2018 as it lost out to rising competition.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman is facing questioning in Spain over allegations he illegally laid “economic siege” to an acquisition target while camouflaging his true role, according to court documents seen by the Financial Times. An anti-corruption prosecutor suspects Mr Fridman broke the country’s criminal code in 2016 in an attempt to take control of Zed World Wide, a Spanish mobile content and services business that later declared insolvency, the Financial Times reported.