Bloomberg France is optimistic that the European Commission will sign off within days on an innovative plan for helping companies through the post-pandemic recovery, according to a finance ministry official, who asked not to be identified. The French government has proposed a program to partially guarantee billions of euros of so-called participatory loans to improve corporate balance sheets and encourage ...

Bloomberg Passenger-car sales in Europe’s five biggest markets tumbled by more than a quarter last month after lockdowns to combat the pandemic shuttered dealerships and consumers shied away from large purchases. Registrations fall 28% across Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain in January from the year-earlier period, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michael Dean. With lockdowns still in effect ...

Bloomberg The energy crisis crippling Texas’s power system continued to spread, with nearly 5 million people across the US plunged into darkness as authorities fought to avoid a total collapse of the grid. Homes and businesses from North Dakota to Texas are losing power in the middle of an unprecedented deep freeze that has broken daily temperature records in hundreds ...