Troubled UK outsourcing company Interserve has agreed new terms for a debt-for-equity swap with its lenders as it tries to appease shareholders and avoid collapsing under its £631m debt mountain, Global Construction Review reported. The original plan would have cut existing investors’ holding to 2.5%, but it was rejected by New York hedge fund Coltrane and Dutch hedge fund Farringdon Capital Management, who together hold approximately one-third of Interserve’s shares. Coltrane had also called for the entire Interserve board to be removed apart from chief executive Debbie White.

In the first half of this decade Greece almost crashed out of the eurozone, or faced having its membership suspended, in a process known as Grexit, the Financial Times reported. With the UK one month from its scheduled withdrawal from the EU, and no one sure what will actually happen, what lessons does Grexit hold for Brexit? George Papaconstantinou published an article on this subject last week on ING bank’s website. As Greece’s finance minister from October 2009 to June 2011, he was at the centre of events during the early phase of his nation’s sovereign debt crisis.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development may start discussions with the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) over its privatisation later this year, the EBRD’s manager in the South Caucasus country said. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev ordered in 2015 the privatisation of the oil-rich country’s biggest bank after a clean-up to get rid of distressed assets resulting from poor management, Reuters reported. Two years later the state-run IBA proposed a plan to restructure $3.3 billion of its debt, later receiving approval from creditors holding 93.9 percent of the affected debt.

Hammerson has ramped up property sales in a bid to reduce debt after a crisis in UK retail dealt a blow to the value of its portfolio last year and resulted in a full-year loss, the Financial Times reported. The shopping centre landlord that owns European and UK malls including London’s Brent Cross, said on Monday that it had sold £570m of properties in 2018 at an average discount to net asset value of 7 per cent. It planned to sell a further £500m to £900m in 2019 despite a “tough” market.

Yildiz Holding AS, a debt laden Turkish food conglomerate, plans to sell its Jacob’s cracker unit and production facilities in the U.K. this year, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The owner of McVitie’s digestives and Godiva chocolates may offload the entire business or a stake to an investor, the people said, asking not to be named because the talks are confidential, Bloomberg News reported. The company is working with Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. on the sale, the people said.

Top banks led by HSBC have taken more than half a billion pounds in exceptional charges to cover a rise in defaults after Brexit, but other leading lenders are not as pessimistic on the UK’s economic outlook, creating a growing divide on strategy among Britain’s financial institutions, the Financial Times reported. HSBC, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland have all set aside extra cash in the belief that standard economic models would not fully cover the risks of a disorderly Brexit, while rivals such as Lloyds and Santander have dismissed the need for extra provisions.

Debenhams Plc’s lenders are prepared to grant the struggling department store chain more credit in an effort to ward off a potential low-ball buyout from billionaire shareholder Mike Ashley, Bloomberg News reported. After extending a 40 million-pound ($52 million) loan facility to Debenhams last week, the group of about 10 firms including hedge funds Alcentra, Angelo Gordon & Co. and Silver Point Capital is willing to lend further if necessary, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Norwegian Air’s shareholders overwhelmingly endorsed on Tuesday the lossmaking airline’s plan for a deeply discounted cash call to help bolster its finances, Chairman Bjoern Kise said. Norwegian Air said on Jan. 29 it would raise 3 billion Norwegian crowns ($348 million) in a rights issue, just days after British Airways owner IAG ruled out a bid for the budget carrier, Reuters reported.

The family of Israeli property tycoon Amir Dayan is among buyers of a portfolio of U.K. hotels leased to Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., according to people with knowledge of the deal. The group of nine hotels, which entered a form of bankruptcy protection under U.K. insolvency laws starting in early 2018, was acquired by companies controlled by Vivion Investments Sarl for 246 million pounds ($315 million), according to a filing by the administrators appointed to oversee the properties, Bloomberg News reported.

Isla Rowntree, the founder of British children’s bike maker Islabikes, has resorted to stacking spare parts in meeting spaces and office rooms as she gets ready for a potentially chaotic no-deal Brexit next month, Reuters reported. But the inconvenience of finding the space for six months’ worth of stock is small compared with the financial consequences, she says.