Metro Bank’s share price plunged by a third to a record low after a failed attempt to raise £200m, prompting speculation from analysts and rivals that the challenger bank could be forced into a sale, the Financial Times reported. The lender had to pull a bond sale on Monday after a lack of investor interest, despite offering an unusually high interest rate of 7.5 per cent. However, its advisers insisted on Tuesday that it would be able to raise the new debt after it issues its third-quarter results next month.

In a related story, Reuters reported that Germany will guarantee a 380 million euro ($418.6 million) bridging loan for Condor, the German airline owned by insolvent British travel operator Thomas Cook, to enable it to continue flying and save jobs, the economy minister said on Tuesday. The airline, which is profitable, had said on Monday it would carry on its operations and that it would ask the German government for a bridging loan despite its parent company’s collapse. It is a separate legal entity from Thomas Cook.

The British government has ordered a probe into the role of Thomas Cook Group Plc management in the collapse of the 178-year-old tour operator, which cost thousands of jobs and left people stranded across Europe, Bloomberg News reported. Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom asked the state Insolvency Service to investigate the responsibility of the company’s directors and whether any action they took may have “caused detriment” to lenders or pension schemes. The government also has expressed concerns about bonus payments.

A disorderly Brexit or a permanent loss of corporation tax revenue could leave the Republic as one of the most indebted countries in the world well into the next decade, a new report from the Central Bank warns, The Irish Times reported. In the economic letter – Debt and Uncertainty: Managing Risks to the Public Finances – the authors argue that a hit to corporation tax revenues or a troubled UK exit from the European Union could result in the State’s level of debt remaining above 90 per cent of national income “well into the middle of the next decade”.

Britain’s Pension Protection Fund (PPF) said on Monday it would assess the funding levels of Thomas Cook’s retirement schemes, following the collapse of the world’s oldest travel firm, Reuters reported. PPF is an industry-funded scheme set up to protect the pensions of employees in failing companies. “We await notification that the associated schemes have entered PPF assessment,” a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement, adding PPF would protect the pensions of people on Thomas Cook’s defined benefit, or final salary, schemes.

Thomas Cook has gone into administration after knife-edge talks over the weekend with lenders, shareholders and the UK government failed to piece together a rescue package for the 178-year-old travel company, the Financial Times reported. Following a drawn-out day of negotiations at Latham & Watkins, the law firm, on Sunday, Thomas Cook’s board said early on Monday morning that despite “considerable efforts” the failure of the talks meant “it had no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect”.

Thomas Cook’s attempt to secure a £900m rescue deal have been hampered by demands from its lending banks to secure an additional £200m funding, the Financial Times reported. The 178-year-old tour operator, which has been negotiating with its debtholders and largest shareholder Fosun on a rescue deal, had to delay a crucial hearing on the deal this week as banks including RBS and Lloyd’s pushed for an extra credit facility to be put in place to see the holiday provider through the winter season.

Kier plunged to a £245m loss as the government contractor pushed ahead with an expensive restructuring as questions lingered over its financial health, the Financial Times reported. The group, which is working on Facebook’s King’s Cross headquarters and the HS2 railway, said it had “experienced a difficult year” after it launched a £250m rights issue in December 2018 to strengthen its balance sheet. It announced the departure of chairman Philip Cox, who oversaw the appointment of the group’s new management team and is leaving after just over two years.

British department store group Debenhams said on Thursday that its company voluntary arrangement (CVA) will go ahead as planned after a court rejected challenges to the rescue plan, Reuters reported. Once the country’s biggest department store chain, Debenhams has been hit by a sharp slowdown in sales, high rents and ballooning debt, plus a power struggle with former shareholder Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct. Debenhams’ lenders took control of the retailer in April in an effort to keep stores open.

Air France-KLM and easyJet withdrew competing offers for Aigle Azur on Thursday after missing an overnight court deadline to improve their bids to acquire part of the collapsed budget airline’s operations and staff, Reuters reported. An Air France spokeswoman confirmed it had decided against submitting an expected joint offer with long-haul niche carrier Air Caraibes because “our conditions for doing so weren’t met”. EasyJet said it had also pulled out but remains committed to France and its operations at Paris Orly airport.