Shares in British shopping centre operator Intu sank more than 21% on Wednesday after reporting a fall in first-half net rental income on Wednesday, the latest sign of weakness in a struggling British retail sector, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Intu, which scrapped its dividend earlier this year and changed management after two failed takeover bids, said it was adopting a new five-year strategy to reshape its business and focus on fixing its balance sheet.

GSM London, one of England’s largest privately owned higher education providers, has gone into administration after failing to find a buyer, leaving more than 3,500 students uncertain about where they will complete their studies, the Financial Times reported. The board of the institution, formerly known as Greenwich School of Management, appointed two insolvency practitioners from the accountancy firm BDO on Wednesday, and said teaching would cease on its two campuses in Greenwich and Greenford, in north-west London, at the end of September.

Factory gates shutting for the last time; a vast steelworks teetering on bankruptcy; for sale signs hoisted over some of the grandest names in British industry, the Financial Times reported. Scenes like these that scarred communities in decades past are now coming back to haunt the UK, following a run of troubling developments at some of the country’s largest manufacturers that have left thousands of jobs on the line.

UK company insolvencies rose to a five-year high in the second quarter of this year, in a possible sign of Brexit-related political uncertainty weighing on businesses, the Financial Times reported. Underlying corporate insolvencies rose 2.6 per cent from the first to the second quarter of the year, and are 12 per cent higher than the same period last year, according to the Insolvency Service, a government agency. The figures relate to the second quarter, when Brexit was delayed and Boris Johnson emerged as the frontrunner to replace prime minister Theresa May.

The number of insolvent companies in England and Wales hit its highest in more than five years in the second quarter of 2019, according to data on Tuesday that showed businesses under rising financial pressure as Brexit nears, Reuters reported. The Insolvency Service, a government agency, said 4,321 companies entered insolvency in the April-June period on an underlying basis, excluding bulk closures of personal service companies. This was up from 4,213 in the first quarter and marked the largest total since early 2014.

A consortium of lenders, led by Syndicate Bank, is set to agree to a restructuring scheme for Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.’s Mumbai Metro project, two people in the know told BloombergQuint on condition of anonymity, BloombergQuint reported. The restructuring plan involves extending the tenure of the Rs 2,200 crore in outstanding loans by two years, the people quoted above said. In addition, lenders will likely agree to a cut in interest rates to around 9 percent from over 11 percent currently, which will help the metro project repay its dues on time, the people said.

Bolton Wanderers and Bury's opening League One (third-tier) fixtures could be suspended if they do not furnish evidence of their financial viability by 1600 GMT on Monday, the English Football League (EFL) has said, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Bolton, who were relegated from the second-tier Championship last season, have been in administration since May while promoted Bury must provide the EFL with a viable plan to settle their debts after entering an "insolvency event".

The Bank of England is poised to become the outlier among big central banks, with UK policymakers favouring a “wait and see” approach as their US and European counterparts prepare fresh stimulus, the Financial Times reported. The US Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates this week, and the European Central Bank last week paved the way to cut rates and relaunch asset purchases in the face of persistently low inflation. But the UK’s monetary policy committee (MPC) is in an anomalous position.

Sterling plunged to 28-month lows on Monday and headed for its biggest daily fall against the dollar since November as investors scrambled to factor in the risk of a no-deal Brexit and the possibility of a snap election, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. A still-deeper fall in sterling remains on the cards; all metrics show that a disorderly British exit from the European Union is far from being fully priced in.

Struggling British baby products retailer Mothercare Plc said on Friday its annual underlying pretax profit would not grow, as it grapples with an uncertain and volatile home market along with fragile consumer confidence, Reuters reported. Mothercare, which floated in 1972 and has been a mainstay of British shopping streets, has closed a third of its British stores over the past year through a company voluntary arrangement (CVA).