Britain yesterday urged businesses to prepare for Brexit, just days before a transition period designed to smooth the UK’s departure from the European Union comes to an end, Reuters reported.Britain and the EU clinched a trade deal on Thursday - one which preserves zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the bloc’s single market but which will still cause disruption. The transition period, under which Britain stayed aligned to the EU’s trading and regulatory rules, ends at 2300 GMT on Dec. 31.

Indian stocks fell, taking a sudden plunge about one hour ahead of the close as investors assessed the latest coronavirus outbreaks as well as a new lockdown in the U.K, Bloomberg News reported. The S&P BSE Sensex closed down 3% to 45,553.96, the biggest decline since May, with all stocks in the red. Reliance Industries and utilities were the biggest contributor to the losses with the oil refiner down 2.6%. Meanwhile, a broader gauge of about 200 stocks that includes mid caps tumbled 3.4%, the most since May.

The High Court has made formal orders winding up four companies employing 487 people here that are part of the UK fashion group Arcadia, The Irish Times reported. The companies will continue to trade under the liquidators into the new year pending any disposal of the Arcadia group. Mr Justice Brian O’Moore, when making the winding-up orders on Monday and appointing joint liquidators, said this was “another sad milestone in the decline of bricks and mortar retailing in Ireland”.

OneWeb, the satellite internet group recently rescued from bankruptcy, is expecting to clinch a $400m fundraising next month, its executive chairman said as the company marked a return to business with the launch of 36 satellites, the Financial Times reported. Sunil Bharti Mittal, the Indian telecoms tycoon who with the British government has taken control of OneWeb for $1bn, said two satellite operators and a financial group were in late stage discussions about investing. “We are very close . . . maybe a couple of weeks,” Mr Mittal said.

Stephen Bogan, a prestige car dealer, could be forgiven for the confusion. While checking on a loan being used to buy a £41,000 Porsche from his showroom in Airdrie, Scotland, Mr Bogan was alarmed to discover that his company was listed as the buyer…“It was the perfect crime because we would not have been aware until next year when the bank would have started asking us for interest on the loan,” says the car seller, the Financial Times reported. Mr Bogan was the target of fraudsters seeking to exploit weaknesses in the UK government's £43.5bn coronavirus Bounce Back Loans Scheme.

Rishi Sunak has pledged further financial help for UK businesses with extensions to his flagship furlough and emergency loan schemes as pandemic restrictions are extended and companies brace for a potentially disruptive end to the Brexit transition, the Financial Times reported. The chancellor on Thursday also set March 3 as the date for the next Budget, which is likely to be one of the toughest in years given the pressure to stabilise the public finances with additional spending cuts or tax increases.

The United States and United Kingdom subsidiaries of Montreal-based flexible workspace company Breather have reportedly filed for separate insolvency processes, amid financial troubles and significant downsizing happening at the startup, BetaKit reported. According to The Globe and Mail, the subsidiaries filed for insolvency this week, around the same time Breather decided to pull out of hundreds of leases. The 315 office spaces Breather leased in the US and 40 in the UK will be assigned to third parties to “wind them down” and repay creditors.

Premier Oil will be renamed Harbour Energy Plc after a reverse takeover by private equity-backed Chrysaor due to complete in the first quarter of 2021, Premier said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Struggling to deal with heavy debt after its profits were slashed by a drop in oil prices during COVID-19 lockdowns, Premier struck a deal with Chrysaor in October to create the British North Sea’s largest oil and gas producer. Premier’s shareholders will vote on the transaction on Jan. 12.

A new law which moves HMRC ahead in the queue when a company becomes insolvent could cause more businesses to fail, it is claimed, the Hampshire Chronicle reported. Under the new rules, which came into effect this month, HMRC will be repaid ahead of unsecured creditors, including pension schemes, trade creditors and suppliers in corporate insolvency procedures.

The number of individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) – an alternative to bankruptcy – are on the rise, Insolvency Service data shows, Peer2Peer Finance News reported. The Insolvency Service said the number of company and individual insolvencies remained low in November 2020, in part due to government emergency support and payment breaks during the pandemic. However, on a rolling three-month basis, IVAs are up three per cent to 7,057 as of November 2020 compared with the same period last year.