Listed aviation group Esken is to appoint adminstrators after concluding its proposed restructuring plan has "ceased to be commercially viable," InsiderMedia.com reported. One of Esken's main assets is London Southend Airport and the business is progressing a recapitalisation in relation to the hub.

The Bank of England took another step toward cutting interest rates in the coming months after two of its most ardent hawks dropped their demands for hikes, Bloomberg News reported. Catherine Mann and Jonathan Haskel joined an 8-1 majority on the Monetary Policy Committee to keep rates at a 16-year high of 5.25%, the latest sign that the BOE was edging toward easing policy later this year. That represented the first time since September 2021 that no member of the panel had supported an increase.

U.K. inflation fell more sharply than expected to the lowest level in 2 1/2 years, bolstering investor expectations that the Bank of England will be able to reduce borrowing costs in the coming months, Bloomberg News reported. The Consumer Prices Index rose 3.4% in February from a year earlier, compared with 4% pace the month before, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The figure was lower than the median of 3.5% predicted by economists and the BOE, although it was in line with the Bloomberg Economics’s forecast.

China Life Insurance Co. is in crunch talks with lenders to an office tower in Canary Wharf to help stave off the locality’s third potential major default, as the eastern financial district of London grapples with some of the city’s highest vacancy rates, Bloomberg News reported. The landlord is in discussions with Lloyds Banking Group Plc, which originally financed 10 Upper Bank Street before syndicating the vast majority of the debt to several Chinese banks, about a plan to avoid an event of default ahead of the loan’s maturity next month, people with knowledge of the negotiations said.

Saudi Arabia and Gucci-owner Kering are said to be circling Selfridges as the insolvency of the department store’s co-owner triggers a battle for the business, the Telegraph reported. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and luxury goods giant Kering, which is owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault, are both thought to be interested in a stake in Selfridges, according to City sources. Interest has been triggered by the collapse of Signa, the Austrian company run by businessman Rene Benko that owns half of Selfridges’ property company.

The profits were multiplying at a dizzying clip: 50%, 100%, then suddenly almost 200%. Even for long-time veterans at Attestor Ltd., a boutique London firm that specializes in trading distressed assets, this had the makings of a score to remember, Bloomberg News reported. The trade — targeting the remains of Sam Bankman-Fried’s once-vast cryptocurrency empire — became a popular one in distressed investing circles last year.

The number of companies declared insolvent in England and Wales last month was 17% higher than a year earlier, as many businesses continued to struggle following a surge in costs last year and ongoing high interest rates, Reuters reported. The Insolvency Service, a government agency, said 2,102 companies were declared insolvent, up from 1,801 in February 2023 and more than 50% higher than in February 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit Britain.

The Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has admitted an insolvency resolution application against Jatin Rajnikant Mehta, the personal guarantor of bankrupt Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery, for a default of over Rs 457 crore, the Economic Times of India reported. Mehta is suspected to be in St. Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean island country. Winsome Diamonds, which was earlier known as Su-Raj Diamonds and Jewellery, has admitted liabilities of over Rs 12,668 crore.

A hedge-fund founder at the center of a $1.2 billion legal battle between Indian education-technology company Byju’s and its lenders is staying outside the U.S. despite a court order to return, saying he fears for his safety, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. William Cameron Morton said in an interview that he left the U.S. rather than comply with a court order to divulge the whereabouts of nearly $540 million that Byju’s invested in his Florida-based hedge-fund firm, Camshaft Capital.