More than £50bn has been borrowed by British businesses struggling to survive the pandemic in government-backed debt, showing the continued need for support for companies even as lockdown measures are eased, the Financial Times reported. The Treasury said on Tuesday that close to 1.2m businesses had taken bank bailout loans and other debt that were partly or fully guaranteed by the government.

U.K. discount retailer Matalan will file for Chapter 15 court protection in the U.S. on Wednesday as part of broader measures to buttress its balance sheet in the aftermath of pandemic-inflicted closures, Bloomberg News reported. The company will seek “certain interim relief” under Chapter 15 and recognition for its debt restructuring in the U.K., according to a statement Tuesday. Chapter 15 of U.S. bankruptcy law shields foreign companies from lawsuits by U.S. creditors while they reorganize in another country. The retailer used a U.K. court procedure known as a scheme of arrangement.

PizzaExpress stakeholders are under pressure to reach a debt deal this week before a deadline to pay more than 20 million pounds ($26 million) in debt interest, Bloomberg News reported. A group of the company’s bondholders, including U.S. firms Cyrus Capital Partners LP, HIG Bayside Capital and Bain Capital Credit, are seeking to take control of PizzaExpress’s U.K. and Irish business in exchange for providing fresh funding and cutting the debt load. Under their plan, current owner Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital would be left with the overseas restaurants including those in China.

Argentina’s government reaffirmed on Saturday that it would not budge from its latest proposal to restructure around the $65 billion (51 billion pounds) in debt, but signaled it would be willing to negotiate on the fine print around the deal. The South American country is facing a standoff with bondholders after creditor groups joined forces to reject the government’s proposal earlier in July and put forward one of their own. The government has repeatedly said it cannot offer more, though sources told Reuters this week it would be willing to negotiate key contractual terms.

Bank of England interest-rate setter Jonathan Haskel said he was worried that Britain’s economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis could be slow and it would depend heavily on whether people felt confident that it was safe to go out, Reuters reported. Haskel, who backed the BoE’s latest 100 billion-pound expansion of asset purchases last month, also warned that unemployment had the potential to be worse than during the 2008-09 financial crisis.

Hospital operator NMC Health is looking to raise up to $250 million in debt while it prepares for insolvency proceedings in the United Arab Emirates and has picked Perella Weinberg Partners to advise it on the process, sources said, Reuters reported. The company, run by administrators Alvarez & Marsal, has also tasked Perella to advise it on the sale of UK-based Aspen Healthcare, a company it acquired in 2018, the two sources familiar with the matter said.

British Steel’s Chinese owner has had its bid to acquire a factory in France rejected by a court as concerns grow in some European capitals about companies from the Asian superpower snapping up assets, the Financial Times reported. Jingye Group, which saved the UK’s second-largest steelmaker from bankruptcy earlier this year, was attempting to wrest control of a small mill in north-east France that belonged to British Steel.

The number of people going financially insolvent is poised to spike in the run-up to Christmas as businesses fail and unpaid debts mount up, a survey of experts suggests, the Evening Express reported. The majority of personal insolvency experts who think there will be an increase in cases in the coming year think the spike will happen towards the end of 2020, although a significant proportion predict it will be in early 2021, according to the findings from insolvency and restructuring trade body R3.

A subsidiary of AIM-listed RBG Holdings plc, a professional services group, LionFish announced this week the launch of ISLERO, which it claimed will be able to offer cheaper and more flexible pricing structures, including some rate-based alternatives, Credit Strategy reported. LionFish said ISLERO will adopt the same principles that underpin LionFish’s overall litigation financing activities.

The extent of the coronavirus toll on the UK public finances was exposed on Tuesday with official figures showing a record government cash deficit in the first quarter of the financial year, more than twice the previous highest level of borrowing, the Financial Times reported. Between April and June, the government’s net cash requirement — the deficit of tax receipts over public spending — was £174bn, far higher than both the £20.3bn in the same period of 2019-20 and the previous quarterly record of £76.8bn at the height of the global financial crisis in the fourth quarter of 2009.