With an offer of $5 million, U.K.-based outdoor and sports gear retailer Mountain Warehouse has emerged as the stalking horse bidder for Eastern Mountain Sports’ intellectual property. The bankruptcy auction ends by Aug. 30, when the deal is scheduled to close, per court documents, RetailDive.com reported. After that date, EMS will close any inventoried stores until the deal is complete, and it would be up to Mountain Warehouse to reopen them. If EMS accepts a higher bid, Mountain Warehouse is entitled to a $150,000 break-up fee, according to court filings.

Bank of Canada officials worried about the risk of a yearslong slump in consumer spending amid signs of labor-market weakness, according to a summary of their deliberations leading up to a July rate cut, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Bank of Canada delivered a second straight quarter-point cut in July, taking its policy rate to 4.5%, and signaled more reductions were in the offing given that economic slack, or spare capacity, has increased. Gov.

Personal insolvencies are at a four-year high in Canada as consumers struggle with lingering inflation, high interest rates and debt they can no longer handle, the Toronto Star reported. The Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals (CAIRP) report for the second quarter shows a rise of 12.4 per cent in insolvencies compared to the year prior. And the numbers for business are even worse with insolvencies spiking 41.4 per cent year-over-year.

Bank of Montreal has sold about £300 million ($383 million) of Thames Water’s senior debt at an almost 30% discount, Bloomberg News reported. The Canadian lender sold a mix of the utility firm’s senior debt, including bilateral loans and privately placed debt, split across Class A instruments with different maturities. The debt was sold for a little over 70% of its face value, following an auction process with a reserve price of 65%, which closed on Friday, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News.

B.C.’s financial markets regulator on Wednesday called on Ottawa to make changes to federal laws so that fraudsters hit with steep fines still have to pay up even after declaring bankruptcy, the Vancouver Sun reported. Brenda Leong, chairwoman and CEO of the B.C. Securities Commission, said she would work with other provincial regulators to make the plea to Ottawa after Canada’s high court ruled administrative penalties, or fines, don’t survive bankruptcy while orders to pay back ill-gotten gains do.

Canadian federal government's target for a bump in its controversial capital gains tax over the next five years will fall short by a tenth, according to an analysis released on Thursday by the parliamentary budget officer, Reuters reported. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland revealed a new tax on wealthy individuals in her budget in April which would bring in C$19.4 billion ($13.99 billion) over four years.

Postmedia Network Inc. has announced plans to buy “certain businesses” belonging to SaltWire Network Inc. and The Halifax Herald Ltd., the two insolvent media companies behind Atlantic Canada’s largest newspaper chain, the Canadian Press reported. The Toronto-based company, which owns the National Post, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen and dozens of other publications, issued a statement Friday saying the deal is subject to conditions, including approval from the Nova Scotia Supreme Court and “satisfactory outcomes” with unionized workers.

A group of Latam Airlines Group SA shareholders raised $456 million in an initial public offering of American depositary shares, Bloomberg News reported. The shareholders in the Santiago-based airline sold 19 million ADS on Tuesday for $24 each, according to a statement. Each ADS represents 2,000 of Latam’s common shares, which trade on the Chilean Stock Exchange. The sellers are Sixth Street Partners, Strategic Value Partners, Olympus Peak, Monarch Funds, Värde Funds and Marathon Fund, the statement shows.

The Bank of Canada cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point for a second consecutive meeting and signaled further easing ahead as inflation worries wane, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers led by Governor Tiff Macklem lowered the benchmark overnight rate to 4.5% on Wednesday, as widely expected by markets and economists in a Bloomberg survey. Officials see below-potential growth continuing to cool inflation, and said they’re spending more time discussing economic headwinds.

Mexico’s headline inflation accelerated much more than expected early this month, complicating investor bets that Banco de Mexico will resume interest rate cuts in August, Bloomberg News reported. Official data published Wednesday showed consumer prices rose 5.61% in the first two weeks of July from the same period a year earlier, above all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists that had a 5.38% median estimate.