Travel agent STA Travel Group has gone into voluntary administration. It comes after the collapse of the travel group’s Swiss-based parent company STA Travel Holding AG, which filed for insolvency, Business Insider Australia reported. STA operates online travel agent services and 27 outlets in Australia, with Deloitte’s Jason Tracy and Timothy Norman appointed as administrators on August 21.

Swissport has secured hundreds of millions of euros of financial backing from creditors, gaining a vote of confidence in its future as the travel sector is hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis, Reuters reported. The Swiss-based airport ground services firm said a comprehensive restructuring with lenders included 300 million euros ($353 million) in interim support and a 500 million euro long-term debt facility that will replace that initial backing.

The Swiss parent company of STA Travel has filed for insolvency but says “day to day operations may continue” at subsidiaries including the UK business, Travel Weekly reported. STA Travel Holding AG is the holding company of the youth travel specialist which is owned by Diethelm Keller Holding (DKH). Administrators are due to be appointed to determine the “next steps” for the holding company, but the firm confirmed the process applies only to the Swiss business and not to STA Travel in the UK, which has 52 stores and an Atol licence to carry more than 34,000 passengers a year.

Offshore oil servicers are going bust at the fastest pace in three years as explorers spurn high-cost drilling to deal with a worldwide slump in commodity prices, Bloomberg News reported. The debacle, triggered by the pandemic-driven drop in oil prices, has already claimed some of the biggest companies that supply rigs, transportation and other support services to deep-water drillers. Noble Corp. and Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. have filed for Chapter 11 since the start of the pandemic-driven oil downturn, while Valaris Plc filed for bankruptcy Wednesday. Firms including Transocean Ltd.

CNN Money Switzerland (CNNMS) will cease operations and file for bankruptcy after the coronavirus pandemic hit revenues, the Swiss business media company said on Monday, Reuters reported. While audience figures for the company’s audiovisual programmes rose sharply over the past six months, revenues contracted as business partners hit by the crisis cancelled or postponed contracts, CNNMS said in a statement.

Lenders to the world’s biggest airport baggage-handling group Swissport have offered a rescue package that would restructure its €2.1 billion of net debt and could transfer ownership to them from struggling Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, The Irish Times  reported. The owners of €1.4 billion of senior secured bonds issued by Swissport have promised to invest in the business to help it survive the pandemic, which has hit its operations hard with the grounding of flights.

The Swiss economy is expected to suffer its biggest contraction since the mid-1970s this year, with financial stability risks increasing globally due spiraling corporate and state debt, Bloomberg News reported. “The risk of upheaval on the financial markets and further upward pressure on the Swiss franc is high,” Switzerland’s the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday. Like many advanced economies, momentum in Switzerland tanked after theaters, shops and restaurants got shut down in a bid to control the outbreak.

Switzerland has opened a probe related to $2 billion of loans to Mozambique that were organized by banks including Credit Suisse Group AG and VTB Bank PJSC, in a scandal that has already attracted the attention of prosecutors in the U.S, Bloomberg News reported. The criminal probe started in February against “persons unknown” on suspicion of money laundering in connection with the credit, the Office of the Attorney General said on Friday. The target of the proceedings is not any specific person or entity, the office said.

To the analysts at UBS Global Wealth Management, the $3.9 trillion municipal-bond market is heading into the biggest financial storm anyone has ever seen, Bloomberg News reported. The nation’s swift economic collapse is hitting virtually every corner of the market, which extends far beyond states and cities with the power to raise taxes. Nursing homes that have sold tax-exempt debt are being ravaged by the outbreak. College dormitory operators are facing vacancies, while small private schools that were already competing for students face uncertain prospects.

Switzerland and Austria pledged to help Lufthansa with state-backed loans as the German airline pursues talks with Berlin over a 9 billion euro ($9.8 billion) rescue package, Reuters reported. The Swiss government said on Wednesday it will ask parliament for 1.275 billion francs in loan guarantees for Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) units Swiss and Edelweiss. Strict travel restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic have brought flights to a near-halt across the world and there is no end in sight for when they can restart, leaving many airlines begging governments for rescue packages.