A luxury townhouse in London’s exclusive Kensington district is expected to sell for about $34 million (£27 million) as part of bankruptcy proceedings, Bloomberg News reported. The property, a short walk from Hyde Park, is registered to Khalifa Bin Butti Omeir Al Muhairi — an Emirati former vice-chairman of NMC Health Plc. The once London-listed hospital operator collapsed into administration in 2020 following allegations of fraud, triggering a series of investigations and lawsuits. Al Muhairi filed for bankruptcy in an Abu Dhabi court a year later.

A council is warning it could be at risk of bankruptcy as £3m of government funding for port checks is withdrawn. Dover District Council (DCC) is responsible for checking food for diseases as it enters the UK, including African swine fever, BBC.com reported. The authority will now have to plug the funding gap, which it warns will "severely deplete" council reserves.

Distressed Chinese developer Guangzhou R&F Properties plans to sell a property project in London by asking to receive some of its dollar bonds and just HK$1 (S$0.17) of cash, the Business Times reported. The defaulted builder signed a letter of intent to sell the holding company of Market Towers at 1 Nine Elms Lane, according to a filing late Tuesday (Feb 6) in Hong Kong. The mixed-used development is valued at £1.34 billion (S$2.27 billion) and includes 437 residential units and a hotel, it said.

Britain’s biggest homebuilder Barratt Developments agreed on Wednesday to purchase rival Redrow for £2.52 billion ($3.18 billion) as signs emerged of a recovery in the U.K. housing market, MarketWatch.com reported. Adding Redrow’s high-end homes to Barratt’s portfolio would give “customers a wider range of home types and price points,” while also delivering cost synergies of up to £90 million from “procurement savings and a rationalization of divisional and central functions,” said the FTSE 100 member.

Retail sales growth in the U.K. slowed in January mainly due to easing inflation and weak consumer demand, with cost-of-living pressures entering their third year, according to British Retail Consortium data, the Wall Street Journal reported. Total retail sales for the four weeks to Jan. 27 increased by 1.2% on month compared with 1.7% growth the prior month and the three-month average of 1.9%, the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor said Tuesday. Growth stood at 4.2% in January last year.

Bradford Council has drafted in a specialist to overhaul its finances as it tries to avoid going bust, BBC.com reported. Steven Mair became the authority's interim director of finance last month. He had previously been brought in by councils in Essex and Berkshire as they went through effective bankruptcy. A Bradford Council spokesperson said officers were pleased he would "support us at this financially challenging time". They said Mr Mair had "extensive experience of dealing with successful financial and change management projects across several local authorities".

Close Brothers Group Plc extended a share price rout that has wiped out a third of its value this year, amid ongoing reviews by the Financial Conduct Authority of two markets in which the 145-year-old British bank operates in, Bloomberg News reported. The stock fell as much as 5% on Friday, as RBC Capital downgraded its rating due to the regulator’s separate reviews of both motor financing and insurance taken out on credit, known as premium finance.

Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill said the first interest rate reduction is still “some way off” despite signals that borrowing costs have probably peaked, Bloomberg News reported. Addressing the central bank’s regional agents after the deeply split vote to maintain the key rate at 5.25%, Pill said policy needed to remain “restrictive until the consistent component of inflation has been squeezed out of the system.” The remarks tempered expectations on a rapid series of rate cuts this year.

The Bank of England left its key interest rate unchanged but signaled it is likely to lower borrowing costs this year for the first time since 2020, though perhaps not as soon as investors expect, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.K. central bank’s move followed a similar pivot by the Federal Reserve, which Wednesday signaled it was thinking about when to lower interest rates but hinted a cut wasn’t imminent when it held rates steady. Last week, the European Central Bank left its key rate at a record high but kept open the door to cuts as soon as the spring.

Business insolvencies in Northern Ireland soared by 62% in the final quarter of 2023 compared to the previous year, government figures show, the Irish News reported. But on the flip side, more than 13,200 start-ups were launched over the last 12 months. There were 81 company insolvencies in the north in the October-December period, according to the Insolvency Service, taking the total number of business failures over the calendar year to more than 200.