WH Smith said it has secured a new £120 million loan and will raise more cash to help it get through the coronavirus crisis.

The high street retailer said it has seen a "substantial downturn in economic activity" as a result of the virus.

It closed the majority of its stores after the Government called for non-essential stores to shut, but its Post Office branch sites and hospital stores have remained open.

The company said the new lending facility is conditional on it raising new equity to support its operations.

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As a result, the group is "in an advanced stage" of preparation for an equity raise of up to 13.7% of its issued share capital through a placing of shares.

It said the loan will "strengthen its balance sheet, working capital and liquidity position" to aid it through uncertain times.

Shares in the books, newspaper and stationery business have fallen more than 50% in the past six weeks.

In a statement, the company said: "These financing arrangements, coupled with a broad range of mitigating actions to manage the cost base and cash-flow, will provide sufficient liquidity to deal with this most challenging of trading environments.

"A further announcement will be made as and when appropriate."

The retailer saw its shares lift higher in early trading on Monday, jumping 8.7% to 1,098p.

The founder of easyJet has warned that the budget airline will "run out of money by around August", as he renewed calls to cancel a £4.5 billion order with Airbus.

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou said: "Terminating the Airbus contract is the only chance current shareholders have to maintain any value in their shares.

"If easyJet terminates the Airbus contract, then it does not need loans from the UK taxpayer and it has the best chance to survive and thrive in the future with some injection of additional equity provided for by the markets."

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He said: "But if easyJet stumbles along whilst taking UK taxpayers' money as loans only to pass it on to Airbus, it will have to raise fresh equity anyway in the next three to six months - reducing the value of our current shareholdings to close to zero.

"For the avoidance of doubt, I will not inject any fresh equity in easyJet whilst the Airbus liability is in place."

An easyJet spokesman said: "The board is managing the unprecedented challenges facing the airline and the aviation sector as a whole.

"We remain absolutely focused on short-term liquidity, removing expenditure from the business alongside safeguarding jobs and ensuring the long-term future of the airline.

"We believe that holding a general meeting would be an unhelpful distraction from tackling the many immediate issues our business faces."

The UK construction sector suffered its fastest downturn in activity for almost 11 years after measures to stop the spread of coronavirus halted work and caused a slump in new orders.

The closely watched IHS Markit/CIPS construction purchasing managers' index (PMI) dropped to 39.3 for March, from 52.6 in February.

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Analysts had forecast that it would see a reading of 44.0 for the month, according to a consensus from Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Tim Moore, economics director at IHS Markit, said: "March data provides an early snap-shot of the impact on UK construction output from emergency public health measures to halt the Covid-19 pandemic, with activity falling to the greatest extent since the global financial crisis.

"The closure of construction sites and lockdown measures will clearly have an even more severe impact on business activity in the coming months."

Duncan Brock, group director at the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), said: "With no upturn in sight, and with the fastest level of layoffs since September 2010, the sector is stuck in quicksand and sinking further.

"Though lower commodity prices will bring some relief for those that can source a limited number of materials amidst disrupted supply chains, this will be cold comfort without sites to work in and staff available as health concerns remain.

"The brutality of this impact cannot be underestimated, and the sector has not hit rock bottom yet."

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