Headlines

LK Bennett, the luxury fashion chain whose fans include the Duchess of Cambridge and Theresa May, has filed for administration in the latest example of a premium-priced retailer struggling on UK high streets, the Financial Times reported. The company, which was founded by fashion entrepreneur Linda Bennett in 1990 and sold to private equity backers Phoenix Equity Partners and former Jimmy Choo chief executive Robert Bensoussan at a £100m valuation in 2008, has appointed Ernst & Young to handle its insolvency process. The accounting firm will now try to sell the business.

The European Central Bank’s latest efforts to revive the region’s economy is failing to excite credit investors. Credit-default swaps widened, after initially tightening, as investors focused on the central bank’s economic concerns and the less liberal terms for a new round of cheap bank loans, Bloomberg News reported. That overshadowed early enthusiasm sparked by the bank-funding announcement and the ECB’s pledge to hold interest rates at record lows for longer.

Residential skyscrapers are rare in Stockholm, a city permeated by five-story, classic stone buildings built at the turn of the last century. That’s now changing, Bloomberg News reported. The most spectacular addition to the skyline is nearing completion: A 125-meter, brutalist structure that could be mistaken for a tower of Lego blocks. Innovationen offers panorama windows and balconies overlooking the red, yellow and orange facades of the Vasastan neighborhood.

Billionaire Mike Ashley’s push to oust the board of Debenhams Plc came after creditors of the troubled U.K. retailer repeatedly rebuffed his bid to take over immediately as chief executive officer, according to people familiar with the situation. Ashley, whose Sports Direct International Plc is the biggest investor in the department-store chain, has stepped up his campaign by appealing directly to shareholders, Bloomberg News reported. The tycoon late Thursday called for a special vote to unseat all but one of the company’s directors and install himself in a management role.

The UK’s financial regulator has placed a British peer-to-peer lender under special supervision after becoming concerned about its ability to meet the standards required of regulated firms, the Financial Times reported. Lendy, which allows retail investors to fund property development loans, was put on an FCA watchlist in January, according to documents seen by the Financial Times and three people familiar with the situation. The company, its creditors and the regulator are working to shore up the business and collect on its overdue loans.

It’s payback time for Turkey’s economy after a decade of living beyond its means, and the reckoning couldn’t come at a worse time for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the country heads toward bellwether municipal elections. An era of record monetary stimulus around the world supercharged Turkish companies as capital came pouring in, more than doubling corporate credit in the past 10 years, Bloomberg News reported. Driven by Erdogan’s push for growth at all costs, the momentum rarely stalled as the Middle East’s biggest economy repeatedly boomed back to life after downturns.

The Bank of England has told some UK lenders to triple their holdings of easy-to-sell assets in the run-up to Brexit to cope with the market meltdown forecast if the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal later this month, the Financial Times reported. Some lenders must now hold enough liquid assets to withstand a severe stress — when banks stop lending to each other — of 100 days rather than the normal 30, under rules brought in late last year by the BoE’s Prudential Regulation Authority, according to people familiar with the situation.

Banks for Interserve have lined up a so-called pre-pack administration that will wipe out existing shareholders but enable the troubled outsourcer to keep operating, a person familiar with the situation said on Saturday, Reuters reported. Seeking to avoid a collapse like rival Carillion, the plan would come into force if investors reject Interserve’s debt-for-equity swap at a vote on Friday.

India’s bankruptcy court on Friday approved global steel giant ArcelorMittal SA’s bid for debt-ridden Essar Steel, potentially ending months of court battles and opening the country’s steel industry to outsiders, Reuters reported. ArcelorMittal confirmed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had approved the takeover of the 10 million tonne steel plant of Essar Steel by itself and Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, paving the way for the first major foreign participation in India’s steel sector.

France is preparing to impose a 3 per cent digital tax on internet giants with global turnover of more than €750 million and turnover of more than €25 million in France, the Irish Times reported. The French finance minister Bruno Le Maire presented his draft law on the tax to cabinet on Wednesday and the text will go to the National Assembly in early April. It will take effect retroactively from January 1st this year. The tax will apply to the French revenues of some 30 international groups and is expected to raise €500 million annually.