London Stock Exchange Group Plc is tapping the U.S. high-grade bond market for $4.5 billion to help refinance debt it took on related to its acquisition of Refinitiv Holdings Ltd., Bloomberg News reported. The company is selling bonds in five parts. The longest portion of the offering, a 20-year security, may yield about 100 basis points over Treasuries. The exchange will use the funds to refinance debt incurred in connection with its $27 billion purchase of Refinitiv that was completed earlier this year.

Cineworld will ask shareholders to approve an increase in its debt ceiling next month after the pandemic-stricken cinema group plunged to a $3 billion loss last year, Reuters reported. The Regal Cinemas owner, forced by coronavirus lockdowns to shut most of its almost 800 theatres in October and temporarily lay off about 45,000 staff, sunk to its first pretax loss as a listed company last year, after a $212.3 million profit in 2019. Its shares tumbled 9% to 94 pence in early Thursday trading, the worst performance on the UK mid-cap index. The group, which is set to reopen its U.S.

British tourists should go ahead and book foreign holidays despite government warnings not to, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said on Wednesday, as the low-cost carrier announced plans to run 80% of its peak summer capacity, Reuters reported. Vaccine rollouts will tame COVID-19 and reopen travel in time for beach holidays, O’Leary predicted during a news conference in which he also dismissed recent advice from UK ministers that foreign travel is likely to remain off-limits.

Japanese insurer Tokio Marine Holdings Inc said on Tuesday it currently expects no material impact on its results for the fiscal year starting next month as a result of its exposure to the fallout of Greensill Capital’s collapse, Reuters reported. Tokio Marine made the forecast in a statement the day after its shares fell 5.6% following a Bloomberg report that the Japanese insurer faced a larger-than-expected exposure to the insolvent British finance firm.

Britain’s jobless rate unexpectedly fell in the three months to January, a change that partly reflected people giving up their job hunt as lockdown measures tightened at the start of the year, official figures showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The main jobless rate dropped to 5.0% in the three months to January from 5.1% in the final quarter of 2020, in contrast to forecasts in a Reuters poll for a small rise to 5.2%. None of the economists polled had expected a fall.

British officials are drawing up contingency plans in case the government needs to step in to save Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel from collapse, amid fears that thousands of jobs in a critically important industry are at risk, Bloomberg News reported. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and other senior officials have been holding intensive discussions with the company in recent days, aiming to secure the future of the steelmaker.

Securities settlement for Irish assets worth more than 100 billion euros ($119 billion) has left London for the European Union in the latest adjustment in markets to Brexit, Reuters reported. Pan-European exchange Euronext, which runs the Irish stock exchange, said on Thursday it had completed the migration of securities settlement for 50 Irish companies from Crest in London to Euroclear Bank in Brussels from March 15. Settlement of EU securities must take place in a central securities depository (CSD) inside the bloc.

Britain proposed weakening the market grip of “Big Four” auditors on Thursday and making company directors responsible for spotting fraud after the collapses of retailer BHS and builder Carillion, Reuters reported. Directors would have to repay bonuses if their company went bust or serious failings came to light, and dividends and bonuses would have to be stopped if firms didn’t have enough cash - a lesson from the Carillion collapse.

Up to 1,500 former Thomas Cook workers are in line for awards of thousands of pounds each following an employment tribunal judgement, the TSSA announced today, the Morning Star reported. The transport union said that a decision on the collapsed travel firm’s failure to consult before making redundancies opens the way for former employees to claim as much as £4,200 each from the Insolvency Service.