The U.K. economy returned to growth in May on robust services-sector activity, but faces renewed uncertainty and the prospect of higher energy costs as the U.S. and Iran resumed hostilities around the Strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product grew 0.1%, rebounding from a decline of 0.1% in April, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. Economists polled last week by The Wall Street Journal had also expected a 0.1% pickup. The British economy outpaced the U.S.

A six-year-old U.K. restructuring plan is growing in popularity among financially distressed U.S. companies as a way to cut debt while preserving equity and minimizing business disruption, Bloomberg Law reported. The plan can keep companies publicly listed, can provide liability releases for nonbankrupt third parties, and is more confidential than chapter 11 bankruptcy. The approach falls under Part 26A of the U.K.’s Companies Act. It has attracted businesses such as retailer Fossil Group and energy infrastructure company New Fortress Energy, both of which established U.K.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned against calls for broad deregulation ‌in a speech at an annual dinner for Britain's banking elite where a year earlier finance minister Rachel Reeves likened red tape to a "boot on the neck" of businesses, Reuters reported. Bailey told the annual Mansion House dinner in the City of ​London financial district on Tuesday that well-designed regulation was vital for supporting economic growth. "To simply ​argue for less regulation is unhelpfully reductive," Bailey said in a text of ⁠the speech provided in advance by the BoE.

A pioneering Scottish seaweed product maker has been placed into administration, HeraldScotland.com reported. The trade and assets of the Oban-based company have been sold, but half of the small workforce was lost. The Oceanium Limited business, producing farmed seaweed-derived bioactive and food ingredients, has been acquired by Juno Mara Limited following an independent marketing process.

EasyJet has agreed to a £5.7bn takeover by Apollo after the US private equity giant swooped in on a rival deal, The Telegraph reported. Apollo's surprise cash offer of 715p per share for easyJet comfortably outbid a 690p-per-share agreement with Castlelake, which valued the carrier at £5.2bn. After Apollo's offer, the airline's board said it was "no longer minded to recommend the Castlelake proposal". It is not yet clear whether the private credit firm will return with an improved bid. It offered no comment on Apollo's gatecrashing of its deal on Friday.

Some of the world's ‌biggest carmakers on Friday ‌broadly won the first stage of ​a mammoth legal battle over whether some of their diesel vehicles contained ‌prohibited "defeat devices" ⁠which limited emissions control systems, Reuters reported. Judge Sara Cockerill ⁠said in a summary of her ruling that ​she had "rejected ​most of ​the principal ‌allegations advanced against the manufacturers whose vehicles were examined at trial", though she said she had made some ‌adverse findings.

Hedge funds are fuelling a stock market bubble by using billions of dollars in debt to drive up AI valuations, the Bank of England has warned, The Telegraph reported. The Bank's committee tasked with monitoring where the next financial crisis will come from warned that there has been a "significant rise" in hedge funds borrowing to invest in AI stocks. In a new report, the Bank said: "Equity prices have increased especially for AI-related stocks.