The number of companies in Europe that go insolvent will keep growing until at least late next year as higher interest rates and tougher financing conditions weigh on businesses, according to a Scope Ratings analysis seen by Reuters on Thursday. Small businesses in sectors that are cyclical and sensitive, such as retail and construction, are facing the most pressure in the current economic environment, it said.

A key unit of collapsed UK caravan giant RoyaleLife was placed into administration this week, as a fight heats up among debtors owed hundreds of millions of pounds, Bloomberg News reported. Time GB Group Limited is one of around 200 companies that make up RoyaleLife, a group that was owned and founded by self-proclaimed billionaire Robert Bull, but has now mostly collapsed into insolvency. The firm acted as a treasury company for RoyaleLife, undertaking money transfers across the group, and is the closest thing the caravan giant had to a corporate center.

Big banks in Britain are preparing for any future escalation of Western sanctions on China and have shared their "scenario planning" with the British and U.S. governments, a senior banking official has told Reuters. The project involves sharing lessons learned from other sanctions frameworks, including those on Russia, and discussions about the effect any measures imposed on China might have, Neil Whiley, director of sanctions at lobby group UK Finance, said.

KKR & Co. is set to submit a binding offer for Telecom Italia SpA’s phone network, in what promises to be a game-changing deal for the ex-monopolist looking to slash its massive debt pile, Bloomberg News reported. Telecom Italia expects the final bid from the US private equity firm, following months of negotiations, by the end of this weekend at the latest, the people said, in line with a company deadline. KKR has valued the grid at as much as €23 billion ($24 billion).

Irish broadcaster RTÉ will be insolvent by next spring if it does not receive proper funding, its director general has said, BBC.com reported. Kevin Bakhurst made the claim at a hearing of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) Public Affairs Committee on Thursday. He and other RTÉ officials are answering questions over a payments scandal that has plagued the public broadcaster since June. Mr Bakhurst said the organisation was managing its cash "as carefully as we can" to prevent this.

AccorInvest Group SA, one of the world’s largest hotel owners, has put a series of assets up for sale in Europe and Latin America to reduce its debt, Bloomberg News reported. The group, which has more than 750 hotels operated by Accor SA, is looking to raise about €2 billion ($2.1 billion) from sales including hotels under the Sofitel brand in Paris to repay creditors, the people said, asking not to be named discussing private information. It will also talk to lenders to amend the terms and extend the maturity of €4 billion of debt coming due in 2025.

A U.S. bankruptcy court judge granted SAS AB’s request to speed the process of paying $3 million to advisers of the Scandinavian airline’s investor group, keeping its restructuring on track over opposition from creditor Apollo Global Management Inc., Bloomberg News reported. Judge Michael E. Wiles set an Oct. 12 hearing on a motion to expedite reimbursement to advisers to the group led by Air France-KLM and Castlelake LP, who are set to take control of SAS as it exits from chapter 11 protection.

Metro Bank Holdings Plc said it has secured sufficient consent from its bondholders to extend its senior debt and restructure its junior notes as part of a rescue deal agreed over the weekend, Bloomberg News reported. The UK challenger bank has received support from holders of over 75% in value of both its senior and junior notes, potentially making the deal binding for all creditors, according to a statement on Wednesday.

Deutsche Bank AG squared off against the U.S. parent company of Lehman Brothers in a London court this week, hoping to squeeze more money from obscure notes issued by the long-dead bank’s U.K. arm, Bloomberg News reported. The German lender argued that it should be paid money recovered from the U.K. unit ahead of the company’s U.S. parent. Deutsche Bank is leading the case as a holder of a certain type of junior security issued from Lehman’s European unit.

Britain's financial regulator on Tuesday said it was stopping peer-to-peer platform rebuildingsociety.com from approving financial promotions for Binance and other crypto asset firms, days after Binance announced it had partnered with the company, Reuters reported. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which is unregulated in Britain, in a blog post on Sunday said it had launched a new domain for UK users and that rebuildingsociety.com would be approving its marketing and communications materials.