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European Union finance ministers agreed yesterday to a plan calling for more than half a trillion euros worth of new measures to buttress their economies against the onslaught of the coronavirus, but dealt a blow to their worst-hit members, Italy and Spain, by sidestepping their pleas for the bloc to issue joint debt, the New York Times reported. Even in the face of an unprecedented economic crisis caused by a virus that has killed more than 50,000 bloc citizens and infected over a half million, wealthier northern European countries were reluctant to subsidize cheap debt for the badly hit south. And while Germany, the Netherlands and others showed greater generosity than they had in previous crises, the details of the measures announced showed they had gone to great lengths to limit and control the way the funding is used. The programs the finance ministers agreed to recommend to their countries’ leaders for final approval included a €100 billion loan plan for unemployment benefits, €200 billion in loans for smaller businesses, and access to €240 billion in loans for euro-area countries to draw on from the eurozone bailout fund. One euro is equal to about $1.09. But the ministers were not able to reach an agreement on issuing joint bonds, known as “corona-bonds,” despite pleas from the leaders of Italy and Spain, which are bearing the brunt of the crisis, after staunch resistance from Germany, the Netherlands and others. And, in a victory for the Netherlands, which had been lobbying to restrict how the bailout funds can be used, the ministers decided they should be limited to health-related programs.

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed 51 Japanese companies into bankruptcy with a spike in new cases seen in April, Tokyo Shoko Research said on Friday, underscoring the toll the health crisis is taking on the world’s third-largest economy, Reuters reported. The bankruptcies were mostly in the hotel and restaurant industries, such as hot spring hotel operator Fujimi-so in Aichi, central Japan, though they were spreading to small retailers and food producers reliant on inbound tourism, the credit research firm said in a report. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for Tokyo and six other prefectures, after a jump in coronavirus cases in Tokyo sparked concern that Japan was headed for the sort of explosive outbreak seen in other countries.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a 108 trillion yen ($989 billion) stimulus package, Japan’s largest ever, to rescue the coronavirus-hit economy with Tokyo and six other economic hubs set to be put in a state of emergency, Bloomberg News reported. The package, equivalent to about 20 percent of the nation’s economic output, will include cash handouts worth 6 trillion yen for households and small businesses hit by the virus and offers businesses deferrals on tax and social service costs worth 26 trillion yen, Abe said today. The premier said he plans to officially declare as soon as Tuesday a state of emergency for Tokyo, its three neighboring prefectures, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures. He said that details of the stimulus package and an extra budget to finance it would be announced on Tuesday. The first phase of the package aims to stop job losses and bankruptcies, while a second round of aid, after the virus is contained, will try to support a V-shaped economic recovery, according to a government document obtained by Bloomberg. Economists see a deep Japanese recession ahead, with export markets paralyzed, the summer Olympics postponed and the country’s capital facing the prospect of stronger stay-at-home requests.

The U.K. government is loosening its bankruptcy rules to allow struggling businesses to continue trading if they can’t pay their debts because of the impact of the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported. In another sign of how the pandemic is forcing governments to upend policy, Business Secretary Alok Sharma said that the changes would allow British companies being reorganized to access supplies and raw materials, and not be placed into administration by creditors. There will also be a clause that temporarily removes the threat of personal liability for company directors during the pandemic. “These measures will give those firms extra time and space to weather the storm and be ready when the crisis ends, whilst ensuring creditors get the best return possible in the circumstances,” said Sharma, who hosted the government’s daily coronavirus briefing because Prime Minister Boris Johnson is holed up with Covid-19. KPMG and Deloitte, together with other accounting firms with sizable business restructuring divisions, have been pushing the government to introduce softer legislation. Ministers were already looking at allowing beleaguered companies to access government-backed loans through commercial banks, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group is exploring debt restructuring options that include a potential bankruptcy filing, after it was forced to cancel shows because of the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reported. The famed Montreal-based circus company, largely known for its regular shows in Las Vegas venues, had to temporarily lay off most of its staff after social distancing measures put in place to prevent the spread of the virus nixed its performances. Cirque du Soleil is working with restructuring advisers to address a cash crunch and its roughly $900 million in debt. Creditors are also in talks with advisers as they prepare for possible negotiations with the company. Cirque du Soleil's layoffs affected more than 4,600 employees, or about 95 percent of its workforce, the company said.

Like hotels and airlines, cruise companies have seen their business decimated by the coronavirus pandemic and economic shutdowns, the Washington Post reported. But unlike those industries, major cruise operators don’t locate their headquarters in the U.S., so they will not have access to $500 billion in aid for large employers in the massive stimulus bill, the industry’s trade group said yesterday. Language in the 883-page bill passed by the Senate says that to be eligible for aid from the $500 billion fund, companies must be certified as “created or organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States” as well as having “significant operations in” and a majority of employees based in the U.S. Major cruise companies have located their primary headquarters overseas, which for years has allowed them to pay almost no federal taxes and avoid some U.S. regulations. To staff their ships, the companies rely heavily on foreign workers from the Philippines, Indonesia and India.

Canadian fashion executive Peter Nygard’s company, Nygard International Partnership, has filed for bankruptcy protection in its native Canada and in the U.S. in the wake of sex-trafficking allegations against him, the Wall Street Journal reported. The privately held Winnipeg-based company’s four U.S. affiliates on Wednesday filed for chapter 15 at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The international women’s fashion designer and retailer also began a bankruptcy proceeding on Wednesday in Canada. The decision to place the companies into bankruptcy follows Nygard’s decision last month to step down as chairman after federal and local authorities raided the firm’s Manhattan offices as part of an investigation into sex-trafficking allegations against the Canadian fashion mogul. Nygard is being sued in a Manhattan federal court by women accusing him of raping women and underage girls at his Bahamas estate. The class-action lawsuit filed in February by 10 unnamed female plaintiffs alleged he was running a sex-trafficking ring.

Companies of all sizes, from local businesses to blue-chip giants, have taken a big hit from the coronavirus pandemic which will gut companies’ profits and affect not only their ability to keep operations afloat, but also their ability to borrow money, the New York Times reported. If companies are unable to tap credit to pay their rent, make payroll or finance other activities, it could force them to slash costs, lay off workers, pause investments and even declare bankruptcy. That, in turn, could worsen the recession that’s now widely expected and affect the financial markets — already stressed from stock-market plunges — where investors buy and sell the debt issued by companies, making it even harder for companies to borrow. “The economy is coming to a half of a dead stop,” said Michael Greenberger, a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Businesses are having trouble opening or getting customers to engage normally, said Mr. Greenberger, whose research focuses on financial stability. “All of these businesses are going to at some time have to re-up their loans, renew their loans, roll them over. With the decline in revenues the ability to borrow money is going to be very problematic.” On Sunday, the Federal Reserve took the drastic step of slashing interest rates to nearly zero and enacted measures to keep credit pumping through the economy and prevent a wave of business defaults and closings. And in a letter to President Trump and congressional leaders yesterday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked for sweeping changes to laws governing the Fed so that businesses with more than 500 employees could borrow directly from the Fed’s discount window, a lending facility that is open only to banks.