Tina Green, the ultimate owner of the failed retail group Arcadia, will pay a final £50m promised to its pension fund within days as the political outcry over the collapse of the company intensifies, the Financial Times reported. Lady Green, who is the wife of retail tycoon Philip Green, was set to make the payment in September 2021 as part of an agreement struck with The Pensions Regulator and the trustees last year. However, in a statement on Wednesday, she said the payment would be made within the next 10 days, completing the £100m commitment made at the time.

British clothing retailer Bonmarche has gone into administration, putting another 1,600 jobs at risk in a grim week for the sector, Reuters reported. Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion group collapsed into administration on Monday and on Tuesday department store chain Debenhams said it was starting a liquidation process. Together 25,000 jobs are at risk. RSM Restructuring Advisory said it has been appointed as administrators of Bonmarche, which trades from 225 stores across the United Kingdom.

The UK is set to suffer more economic pain from the coronavirus crisis than any other leading economy apart from Argentina, the OECD said on Tuesday, highlighting the spread of the virus and deep downturn across Britain, the Financial Times reported. In its twice-yearly economic outlook, the Paris-based international organisation said that the world economy would on average regain the lost output from the Covid-19 crisis by the end of 2021, but the UK would be far behind the pack.

British department store group Debenhams is set to close all its UK shops after 242 years in business, putting 12,000 jobs at risk in the country’s second major corporate failure in as many days, Reuters reported. The decision to liquidate Debenhams comes after Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion group collapsed into administration on Monday, threatening 13,000 jobs, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit business.

Seadrill Partners LLC said on Tuesday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as a means to restructure its debt, in another sign of financial difficulties for the wider Seadrill Ltd oil drilling rig group, Reuters reported. “The company intends to use the bankruptcy process to ensure that all customer, vendor and employee obligations are met without interruption and to complete a consensual restructuring of its debt,” Seadrill Partners said.

British tycoon Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion group has collapsed into administration, putting over 13,000 jobs at risk and becoming the country’s biggest corporate casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic so far, Reuters reported. Deloitte said late on Monday it had been appointed Arcadia’s administrator and would seek buyers for the group’s brands: Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, Evans, Burton and Outfit. The group trades from 444 leased sites in the United Kingdom and 22 overseas.

The UK has spent more money fighting coronavirus than almost all comparable countries but still languishes towards the bottom of league tables of economic performance in 2020 and deaths caused by the virus, according to Financial Times research. On Wednesday, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility said the UK’s economy was set to shrink by 11.3 per cent in 2020, while the government would need to borrow £394bn to fund a shortfall in taxes and £280bn in public spending to fight Covid-19. Compared with the average of other G7 leading economies, the cost to the UK governmen

British banks are finalizing plans for outsourcing the recovery of billions of pounds in taxpayer-backed business loans issued during the Covid-19 pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. A consortium of lenders is expected to set up an entity that will oversee debt collectors tasked with chasing bad loans, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Philip Green’s Arcadia Group is poised to seek protection from creditors as soon as Monday and become the most notable U.K. retail insolvency since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The owner of brands including Topshop and Topman saw its sales decimated by forced store closures and, over the weekend, stepped up plans to file for administration, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the information is private.

British real estate agent Countrywide has appointed former William Hill chief Philip Bowcock as its CEO to lead talks on a new rescue deal, as shareholders rejected an offer from private equity firm Alchemy Partners, Reuters reported. The London-based company, one of several agents hurt by a coronavirus-driven drop in property sales this year, also said on Tuesday that executive chairman Peter Long had stepped down from his role and retired as a director with immediate effect.