JD Sports on Tuesday appointed Deloitte as administrator for its loss-making outdoor clothing chain as it bought back assets of the unit in a pre-pack administration deal, Reuters reported. Go Outdoors, which JD first bought for 112 million pounds ($140.19 million) four years ago, has struggled with significant losses as sales declined at its 67 stores, and JD had been exploring options for the division while the coronavirus lockdown mounted further pressure.

Intu Properties’ attempts to stave off administration are set to go down to the wire, with the heavily indebted UK shopping centre owner locked in tense negotiations with its lenders ahead of a Friday deadline, the Financial Times reported. The company is negotiating a standstill agreement which would allow it to pause debt repayments for at least a year. If an agreement is not reached, KPMG has been appointed to plan for administration. Discussions were “finely balanced” and there was “no certainty as to whether Intu will achieve a standstill”, said the company.

Two months after its dire predictions of the steepest recession in almost a century, the International Monetary Fund will release new global economic forecasts this week that will probably look even worse, Bloomberg News reported. Officials at the Washington-based Fund have warned that a revised outlook due on Wednesday may feature a more pessimistic view than in April. Back then, they said the “Great Lockdown” caused by the coronavirus would force a global contraction of 3% this year.

A record number of distressed debt funds are seeking to raise fresh capital as the coronavirus pandemic sparks dislocation in the credit markets, Bloomberg News reported. Seventy funds that focus on troubled companies are looking to bring in a combined $72 billion of capital amid a possible prolonged downturn, according to London-based research firm Preqin. That’s more than double the capital targeted by distressed debt funds during 2019, and is higher than any point since 2016. Private credit firms have been building up distressed debt funds for years in preparation for a downturn.

The Bank of England is widely expected to boost its support for the U.K. economy again on Thursday amid signs that recovering from the pandemic-induced recession will be harder than hoped, Bloomberg News reported. Economists predict the central bank will expand its bond-buying program by 100 billion pounds ($125 billion), taking it to 745 billion pounds, and investors are watching keenly for any hint of radical policies such as negative interest rates and yield curve control. The decision will be announced at noon in London.

The level of protection on employee pension benefits in the event of company insolvency would be reduced under the current draft of the U.K. Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association warned Monday, Pensions and Investments reported.

Travelex has pulled the sale of its business after its banks and bondholders rejected offers from a shortlist of potential buyers, leaving the currency exchange heading for a debt-for-equity restructuring as it scrambles to secure its future, the Financial Times reported. In a statement to investors on Monday, Travelex said that it had received a number of non-binding offers but these “were unacceptable” to lenders that provided its revolving credit facility and bondholders.

The UK economy has shrunk by a quarter as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with output falling at the fastest monthly rate on record in April following a steep decline in March, the Financial Times reported. Output in the UK plunged 20.4 per cent in April, compared with the previous month, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. This is by far the largest contraction since monthly records began in 1997 and follows a 5.8 per cent contraction in March, the previous record fall. By the end of April the economy was about 25 per cent smaller than in February.

The UK pensions industry has warned that emergency measures aimed at helping struggling businesses during the coronavirus pandemic could leave millions of pensioners worse off, the Financial Times reported. In recent weeks the Pensions Regulator, the Pension Protection Fund and trade bodies representing retirement schemes have raised concerns with the government that the Corporate and Governance Insolvency Bill could have serious unintended consequences for retirement plans and their members.

Babcock International is deferring its dividend amid uncertainty over the impact of Covid-19 on its defence business, and after a £503m exceptional charge pushed it into a headline pre-tax loss last year, the Financial Times reported. Archie Bethel, the outgoing chief executive of the UK defence contractor, warned the group would this year miss profit margin targets set last June, as it wrestled with the consequences of the virus on productivity. In particular, business with a short-term cycle — roughly 20 per cent of revenues — would be hit this year by a drop in demand.