A run of three profit warnings is frequently followed by boardroom firings and the arrival of administrators at U.K. firms, according to a 20-year study by EY, Bloomberg News reported. Within a year of issuing three or more profit warnings, 18% of U.K. companies will face a restructuring event such as insolvency proceedings, EY said. It also found that by the morning of a third warning, a quarter of chief executive officers have left the firm.

The parent company of Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion empire has reported a full-year loss of £170m and cautioned that a restructuring that took place this summer has not guaranteed its survival, the Financial Times reported. Taveta Investments, which is the main investment vehicle of the Green family and is controlled by Sir Philip’s wife, Tina, said in accounts filed with Companies House that increased competition and challenging conditions “have had a significant impact on performance” at its brands, which include Wallis, Topshop and Burton.

Eversmart Energy has ceased trading, British energy market regulator Ofgem said on Friday, Reuters reported. The company has around 29,000 domestic customers and a very small number of business customers. The company confirmed it was ceasing trade on its website but did not give a reason. Ofgem said it will choose a new supplier to take on all of Eversmart Energy’s customers. This supplier will contact customers shortly after being appointed.

There is no predicting where the UK is headed: an election, a no-deal Brexit, a second referendum, all of the above? But we can say something about the state in which the UK economy finds itself on the cusp of whatever it is that it is facing, the Financial Times reported. That state is evidently not good. Since the Brexit referendum, UK growth has been lagging behind that of the G7 as a whole, after leading it for the preceding four years. The past quarter put the UK at the very bottom of the G7 growth table, with a contraction of 0.2 (an annualised rate of nearly 1 per cent).

La Perla, the indebted Italian lingerie brand owned by Lars Windhorst’s investment company, will list its shares on the Paris stock exchange to help access capital at a difficult time, Bloomberg News reported. La Perla, which has stores in London’s Sloane Street and St. Tropez, won’t raise any funds through the move, but the listing “will increase La Perla’s visibility and enhance access to capital," according to Chief Executive Officer Pascal Perrier. The company aims for a market capitalization of 473 million euros ($520 million) when shares are set to begin trading Friday in Paris.

Mallinckrodt Plc has hired restructuring firms and may choose to seek bankruptcy protection, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, sending the drugmaker’s shares down 40% in after-hours trading, Reuters reported. The company has hired law firm Latham & Watkins LLP and consulting firm AlixPartners LLP to advise on the matter, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the situation. Mallinckrodt, which has a market value of about $218 million, declined to comment on the report.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc Chairman Howard Davies shrugged off the prospect of a Labour-led U.K. government re-nationalizing all of the state-backed lender as the chances of an election grow more likely, Bloomberg News reported. Davies said in a Bloomberg Television interview that any Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn would have other things on its mind, saying the nationalization of water utilities and railways seemed more probable.

Germany’s export-dependent economy is suffering from a Brexit shock that along with the rise in global trade tensions and structural changes in the car industry, threatens to push Europe’s economic powerhouse into recession, the Financial Times reported. In the three months to June, exports to Britain dropped 21 per cent quarter on quarter, the biggest fall since the financial crisis a decade ago, contributing to the 0.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter contraction in GDP that Germany experienced in the same period.

Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct is funding a legal challenge against Debenhams to drive it out of business and “pick up its assets on the cheap”, it was claimed in the High Court on Monday, the Financial Times reported. Sports Direct, founded by billionaire Mr Ashley, is financing a High Court lawsuit brought by six landlords that are challenging restructuring proposals which the UK retailer’s creditors overwhelmingly approved in May after Debenhams was bought out of administration by its lenders.

The UK government will hold an emergency meeting with senior bankers in Westminster next Thursday to try to co-ordinate plans to limit the impact of a no-deal Brexit on small businesses, the Financial Times reported. Andrea Leadsom, the business secretary, Michael Gove, the minister in charge of no-deal preparations, and City minister John Glen are all expected to attend, along with executives from the country’s largest business lenders and industry group UK Finance, according to multiple people briefed on the meeting.