Thursday newspaper round-up: BNPL, Saga, Farfetch

(Sharecast News) - More than a quarter of adults in the UK will use buy now, pay later to help with festive spending, research suggests, with the proportion rising to more than half of parents with young children. The survey for Citizens Advice also found 11% of respondents used such credit schemes to pay for groceries, a proportion that rose to 35% for regular BNPL users. - Guardian As champagne crashed over the bow of Saga's new Spirit of Discovery cruise ship in 2019, Saga's management team, flanked by the then-Duchess of Cornwall, were in high spirits. The group toasted a landmark moment for the insurance-to-travel specialist. The ship was one of two built to order for Saga and was meant to usher in better times for the business, which has offered package holidays and insurance to millions of over-50s for decades. - Telegraph

Office landlords are facing a £34bn cash crunch in Europe as staff shift to working from home, economists have warned. High interest rates and a slump in office values after the pandemic mean Europe's commercial real estate sector will be hit by a funding shortfall between 2023 and 2026, according to S&P Global Ratings. - Telegraph

Signa, the investment group and Selfridges shareholder, has become the biggest casualty yet of a crash in European commercial property as its last-ditch attempts to secure fresh capital failed. The insolvency of the heavily indebted group will heighten concerns about the health of the property industry, which is battling rising debt costs and faces pressure on valuations, linked to changing working habits. - The Times

Shares in Farfetch, the London-based, New York-listed luxury fashion retailer crashed by 50 per cent after it delayed publication of its results and said previous guidance "should not be relied upon". The shock update sent the company's value to an all-time low, five years since it floated at £6.3 billion in 2018. - The Times