PizzaExpress has appointed City grandee Allan Leighton as chairman as part of a recapitalisation that hands bondholders ownership of the restaurant chain in exchange for paying down £416m worth of debt, the Financial Times reported. Mr Leighton, a former boss of Asda and chairman of restaurant chain Wagamama, will be joined by David Campbell, previously chief executive of Wagamama.

When Britain’s oldest brewer closed the doors of its 15 City of London pubs after a last hurrah for drinkers on Wednesday night, most of the landlords had no idea when they would open again, the Financial Times reported. Several of these pubs will never emerge from the second national lockdown, according to Shepherd Neame boss, Jonathan Neame — victims of new restrictions that have again sent home thousands of workers who would normally be gearing up for the traditional pre-Christmas City drinks circuit.

An imminent change to insolvency law and a predicted increase in COVID-19-related business failures could significantly impact the cost and availability of credit insurance, the specialist cover specifically designed to protect against bad debt, TheBusinessDesk.com reported. That’s the warning from RBIG Corporate Risk Services who point out that the December 1, return of ‘Crown Preference’ will push lenders and suppliers down the debt payment queue.

Markets face some disruption in January if Britain and the European Union fail to agree on continued two-way cross-border access, top British regulators said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Britain has left the EU and continued full access to the bloc under a transition arrangement expires on Dec. 31, with the City of London facing patchy access to the bloc in future. The EU is still deciding on how much direct financial market access it can give Britain under a system whereby Brussels deems British rules to be “equivalent” to its own.

The Covid-19 pandemic has put small businesses under considerable financial strain relative to larger companies, with the shock to their turnover creating significant cash-flow challenges in some sectors, Central Bank deputy governor Ed Sibley said at a Small Firms Association webinar on Wednesday, The Irish Times reported. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are operating in a very difficult and uncertain environment, despite interventions to cushion the effects of the crisis, Mr Sibley said.

A sufficient number of creditors of indebted Premier Oil have approved a proposed merger with private equity backed Chrysaor to create the British North Sea's biggest oil and gas producer, Premier said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The reverse takeover, which will see Premier’s creditors paid $1.23 billion (947.9 million pounds) in cash, will fold one of the world’s oldest independent producers into a private equity-backed group in which Premier shareholders will receive an expected 5.45% stake. Premier had $1.9 billion in net debt.

Lazard Ltd has hired restructuring banker Sam Whittaker from PJT Partners to oversee negotiations between companies and their creditors across Europe, the Middle East and Africa as a second wave of COVID-19 leaves many businesses fighting for survival, Reuters reported. Whittaker, who started his banking career at Lazard in 2005 and then moved to fellow investment bank PJT in 2015, will re-join Lazard as a London-based managing director in its EMEA restructuring franchise.

Bounty, the parenting club which has distributed samples of baby products to generations of new mums, is on the brink of insolvency after seeing one of its main revenue streams cut off by the coronavirus pandemic, Sky News reported. Sky News has learnt that Bounty is preparing to confirm a pre-pack administration later this week that will result in as many as 300 redundancies. Sources said that Bounty's current owner and chief executive, Alan Charming Chan, was expected to buy its sampling and consumer marketing division from Alvarez & Marsal, the prospective administrator.

British Land and Land Securities are among the landlords that have challenged New Look’s company voluntary arrangement, casting renewed doubt over the survival of the fashion chain, the Financial Times reported. The CVA, a type of insolvency process that usually results in landlords agreeing hefty rent cuts, was approved by creditors in September but the statutory challenge period ran until the middle of October. Three people with knowledge of the process said that there had been four separate challenges.

Tax experts have warned that an incoming law which moves HM Revenue & Customs higher up the list of creditors in insolvencies could further damage the economy and cause more companies to go bust, the Financial Times reported. From December 1, the UK tax authority will be ranked higher in the pecking order used to decide which creditors get paid first when a company fails. The change applies to unpaid VAT, income tax, employee’s national insurance, student loan deductions and Construction Industry Scheme deductions, but not corporation tax.