(Bloomberg) -- Britain’s finance minister, Rishi Sunak, has authorized a plan to save strategically important companies, the Financial Times reported, citing details shared with the newspaper by the Treasury.

Under the plan, the government would rescue companies in exceptional circumstances to save those whose failure would “disproportionately harm the economy,” the Financial Times reported.

Sunak has increased the Treasury’s capacity to handle bailouts of “viable companies which have exhausted all options,” the report said. Any support would be on a “last resort basis,” the newspaper reported.

Sunak’s allies told the newspaper that the Treasury would not initially seek equity stakes in struggling companies, preferring to extend loans.

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