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.

Only 10 British banks have signed up to an industry-wide plan for collecting unpaid emergency COVID-19 loans, with more than a dozen including HSBC considering going it alone, sources told Reuters. UK Finance is setting up a central body to co-ordinate collecting unpaid loans to help its members cope with a forecast surge in defaults and to protect individual lenders from allegations of unfair treatment of customers, Reuters reported.

Authentic Brands is plotting a double takeover of collapsed department store chain Debenhams and Topshop-owner Arcadia Group, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday, citing sources, Reuters reported. Authentic Brands, owner of the New York department store brand Barneys, is in talks this weekend with the administrators of both stricken companies, the newspaper reported. The companies did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday. Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group said on Monday it was in negotiations to buy Debenhams from administrators in a rescue deal.

Insolvencies among UK high street companies have ricocheted to investors who made private loans to them, highlighting the limits of central bank interventions that staved off a string of defaults in the public debt market, the Financial Times reported.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group Plc is getting closer to a deal to rescue part of the ailing Debenhams department-store chain, according to people familiar with the situation, Bloomberg News reported. The owner of the House of Fraser and Sports Direct chains is in negotiations to buy the 242-year-old Debenhams brand and website and to take on a substantial number of stores, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Private debt funds that lent to UK high street companies including Debenhams and Casual Dining Group have endured losses after the pandemic sent tremors through the leisure and retail sectors, the Financial Times reported.

The Pound to Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate plummeted by -1% today, with the pairing currently fluctuating around €1.096, Future Currency Forecast reported. The Pound (GBP) fell today following comments from the European Union’s Chief Negotiator, Michel Barnier, who outlined a ‘very gloomy’ assessment of trade negotiations between the two sides.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group said it is in negotiations to buy collapsed department store chain Debenhams from administrators in a rescue deal, which would further extend the retail billionaire’s reach in the British high street, Reuters reported. Frasers, formerly Sports Direct, said that it hoped a deal could be agreed and jobs at Debenhams saved after the COVID-19 pandemic sunk its business, but cautioned that the transaction was complicated and talks needed to take place quickly. A former shareholder in Debenhams, Ashley’s Frasers Group has long-been linked to its rescue.

Losses at Ted Baker, the upmarket UK fashion brand, have ballooned during the pandemic as it was forced into heavy discounting to offset the slump in sales, the Financial Times reported. The chain, which this year launched a turnround after a series of profit warnings, on Monday said pre-tax losses almost quadrupled, increasing more than £63m to £86m in the six months ending August. Sales over the period dropped 46 per cent year on year to £170m.

Billionaire Mike Ashley and advisers to Debenhams are in talks about a takeover deal that could value the troubled U.K. retailer at more than 200 million pounds ($269 million)…Bloomberg News reported. If the deal goes through, Ashley’s Frasers Group would operate Debenhams’ 124 stores under 12-month licenses and could save up to 12,000 jobs, according to the newspaper. The valuation would depend on how much stock is left.