U.K. fashion retailer Superdry has managed to avoid insolvency after shareholders backed a £10mn lifeline on Friday, the Financial Times reported. The results of the meeting with investors come after the company warned in April that it could go bust unless it launched a sweeping restructuring of the business, including negotiating rent reductions with landlords, and said it would delist from the London stock market.

Wages in the U.K. continued to grow rapidly in the three months to April, a concern for the Bank of England as it prepares for a policy meeting next week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Average earnings, excluding bonuses, between February and April were 6.0% higher than a year earlier, the same as in the first quarter of this year, according to data from the Office for National Statistics published Tuesday. While the U.K.’s annual inflation rate slowed to 2.3% in April, closing in on the BOE’s 2% target, prices in the labor-intensive services sector were up 5.9%.

Britain’s next government will immediately face a funding crunch in town halls after councils warned of a £6.2 billion ($7.9 billion) hole in their budget plans over the next two years, Bloomberg News reported. The Local Government Association said council budgets will be stretched to the “limit” after many administrations ran into financial trouble in recent years.

Global payments processors Visa and Mastercard must face a new set of lawsuits over fees charged to retailers, after a London tribunal ruled on Friday that collective cases brought on behalf of merchants can proceed, Reuters reported. The two firms already face a long list of lawsuits in London over multilateral interchange fees, which retailers pay when consumers use a card to shop. Visa and Mastercard are each being sued by hundreds of claimants at London's Competition Appeal Tribunal, which is managing the various cases together.

U.K. businesses expect wages to rise at a slower pace over the coming 12 months, a finding that will help reassure policymakers at the Bank of England that inflation has been tamed, the Wall Street Journal reported. A survey of 2,317 businesses carried out by the BOE during May found that the average expected rise in wages eased to 4.5% from 4.8% in April. Those businesses reported that wages were 6% higher in the three months through May than in the same period a year earlier.

Advantage Capital Holdings LLC has made a proposal to invest in Everton FC, people familiar with the matter said, adding another unexpected twist to the takeover saga surrounding the English Premier League football club, Bloomberg News reported. New York-based A-Cap and a partner firm have submitted a plan that would see them refinance all of Everton’s existing debt and then take a non-controlling equity stake in the club, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

A number of Thames Water’s lenders tapped financial adviser Perella Weinberg Partners ahead of potential debt negotiations with the beleaguered utility, Bloomberg News reported. The group is made up of nearly 20 institutions, said the people, who asked not to be identified because discussions are private. The banks have exposure to the UK’s largest water company through different debt instruments including swaps, a revolving credit facility, and some class A and class B bonds, the people added.

Britain’s councils are preparing a record £1.4bn record fire sale in assets and cancelled investments as they scramble to plug a debt black hole ahead of the election, The Telegraph reported. The Government has given 18 councils the green light to sell-off assets and mothball projects to release cash in a bid to avoid another wave of council bankruptcies before the nation heads to the polls on July 4.

By many measures, London is still a crucial financial hub, where prices are fixed each day for precious metals, trillions of dollars of foreign currency are traded and global insurance contracts are written. But the global competition for investors — among cities like New York, Hong Kong, Dubai and Singapore — is intense.

Superdry has urged its shareholders to approve its new restructure plan during its General Meeting, which will take place on 14 June, GlobalData.com reported. The company explained that its restructuring plan combined with an equity raise and delisting constitute a key package of measures that it believes are needed to avoid it entering into insolvency.