Capelli Lux, the Luxembourg arm of French property group Capelli, has entered insolvency proceedings, casting doubt over the future of a major construction project in Howald, the Luxembourg Times reported. On Monday, insolvency proceedings were filed with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register for Capelli Lux, the developer of the stalled South Village project. It follows a decision by the Paris Commercial Court on 3 December 2025 to convert the Capelli group’s receivership into liquidation proceedings.

The UK is in “a slow but consequential transition”, said authors of a new report from the Resolution Foundation, according to EuroNews.com. “Fewer people of working age; a more fragile politics; higher taxes; and an economy that urgently needs new firms and new jobs to replace the old.” Since the financial crisis in 2008, the UK has struggled to use its resources effectively, meaning it has fallen behind competitors in terms of productivity.

Inflation in France cooled in December — a reading that comes after the European Central Bank’s decision to hold interest rates at the end of last year, EuroNews.com reported. Consumer prices (CPI) rose by 0.8% year-on-year in December, following a reading of 0.9% in November, according to statistics body INSEE. The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices or HICP, which allows for comparison between EU countries, came to 0.7%. That followed a reading of 0.8% in November.

Headline inflation in the Irish economy moderated to less than 3 per cent in December, the Irish Times reported. The latest flash estimate for the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) put the annualised rate of price growth at 2.7 per cent in December, down from 3.1 per cent in November. Euro zone inflation was clocked at 2.1 per cent in November. Eurostat will publish figures for December on Tuesday.

High street chains Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop (TOFS) are being put into administration, after their owner said “last-ditch” measures had fallen through, putting about 2,500 UK staff at risk of redundancy. The two retailers had already undergone restructuring and were bought by investment firm Modella Capital last year. Modella said it had made the “tough decision” to kickstart insolvency proceedings for the businesses. It will mean 1,355 employees in the UK and Ireland at 154 Claire’s shops will be put at risk, and 1,220 staff across 140 TOFS’ stores.

The number of retail and hospitality business insolvencies declined throughout 2025 as the overall number of company closures remained steady, new data from professional services firm PwC shows, the Irish Examiner reported. The latest PwC Insolvency Barometer shows the number of insolvencies recorded in 2025 hit 848 which is down from the 868 recorded in 2024. However, it is still higher than the 736 in 2023. There was an average 204 insolvencies in each quarter since the start of 2023.

Claire’s Accessories is on the brink of collapse for the second time in six months after it was struck by Rachel Reeves’s tax raid, The Telegraph reported. The jewelery and accessories chain has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk just days into the new year. Fresh turmoil comes just months after Claire’s Accessories collapsed into administration before being rescued in September.

An American oil and gas giant is preparing to mothball one of Britain’s last remaining oil refineries after buying the business out of administration, The Telegraph reported. The Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire, one of the last five major oil refineries in the country, will not restart standalone operations after it was sold to Phillips 66 on Monday. The Texas-based oil and gas giant said that the site’s limited size meant it was “not viable in current form”, instead claiming it would integrate some smaller parts of the site into its nearby Humber refinery.

HSBC has started bankruptcy petitions against the brothers Aidan and Howard Barclay amid large debts owed from the family’s collapsed logistics business, The Times reported. The bank filed the cases in the High Court in December against Aidan Barclay, 69, and Howard Barclay, 66, senior members of the Barclay family whose business empire had dramatically unravelled in recent years. HSBC retrieved only about £1.1 million of its £143.5 million secured loan from the administration of Logistics Group.

Hundreds of British hospitality workers face losing their jobs in the coming days as the owner of TGI Fridays finalises plans to buy back a slimmed-down version of one of Britain's best-known casual dining chains, Sky News reported. Sugarloaf TGIF Management, which only took control of TGI Fridays two months ago, is preparing to implement a pre-pack administration of the business in a deal which is expected to take place next week. Insiders said that a transaction was expected to involve the closure of a significant proportion of the estate's 49 restaurants.