The largest shareholder in Cobham has come out against the company’s agreed £4bn takeover by US private equity fund Advent International, arguing that it does not see the deal as “compelling,” the Financial Times reported..

Primark is asking landlords to cut its rents in an attempt to compete with rivals that used insolvency proceedings to reduce costs and remain open, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the information, Bloomberg News reported. The fast-fashion retailer is asking for cuts of as much as 30% on contracts with several years left in exchange for lease extensions or refurbishments, according to the newspaper. Primark has 189 stores, most of which are leased, it said.

Morning, the new prime minister would have us believe, has come to Britain. On the sunlit steps of 10 Downing Street, the home Boris Johnson has dreamt of occupying since he was a child, the incoming premier reeled off a string of promises: more police, shorter waits for doctors, better roads, rail, broadband and education, the Financial Times reported. His was a breezy optimism. “The doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters, they are going to get it wrong again,” he proclaimed.

Whoever wins the U.K.’s leadership race, investors reckon its markets will lose. That’s because for years only one thing has mattered to money managers focused on Great Britain -- the risk of a messy divorce from the European Union pummeling the nation’s assets and darkening its economic prospects, Bloomberg News reported. It’s a scenario neither frontrunner Boris Johnson nor his adversary Jeremy Hunt may be able to avert. “Markets will remain fixated on the Brexit process above all else,” said Edward Park, deputy CIO at Brooks Macdonald Asset Management. “U.K.

Troubled property development schemes spearheaded by a financially stretched former football club chairman account for almost a fifth of the money owed to investors in collapsed peer-to-peer lending platform Lendy, the Financial Times reported. The P2P platform, which had offered retail investors a 12 per cent return before it failed in May, extended £27m of loans to companies controlled by Stewart Day, the former chairman of Bury Football Club, that have since gone into administration, according to Companies House filings.

British media company Reach Plc said on Thursday it was in the early stages of discussions to buy certain assets of JPI Media, which publishes the Yorkshire Post and the Scotsman. Shares of Reach, which publishes Daily Mirror, jumped as much as 9% after the news, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. By 0919 GMT, the stock handed back some of those gains and were up 4.7% at 84.65 pence. Johnston Press, later renamed JPI Media, was bought by its bondholders last year after it filed for bankruptcy protection.

Online fashion retailer Asos warned profits would be more than a third lower than expected this year due to a botched warehouse upgrade that limited the availability of stock to shoppers in the US and Europe, the Financial Times reported. The group’s share price dropped by nearly a quarter early on Thursday as it said pre-tax profit would be about £30m-£35m in 2019, compared with the more than £55m forecast by analysts.

A no-deal Brexit could plunge the British economy into a yearlong recession, hammer the pound and house prices and add tens of billions of pounds to government borrowing, according to the U.K fiscal watchdog, Bloomberg News reported. The Office for Budget Responsibility analysis is based on the “less disruptive” of two no-deal Brexit scenarios modeled by the International Monetary Fund in April. “Heightened uncertainty and declining confidence deter investment, while higher trade barriers with the EU weigh on exports,” the OBR said in its fiscal risks report published Thursday.

The Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority have stepped up their rhetoric about the dangers posed by funds offering customers daily redemption rights while investing in stuff that may prove hard to sell when times get tough, a Bloomberg View reported. The problem they and their fellow regulators face is that market liquidity is an elusive, contradictory thing: It can be reliably ever-present when it isn’t needed – only to vanish as soon as it’s desperately desired. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is unequivocal in his condemnation of the status quo.

Sports Direct International Plc shares headed toward a seven-year low after the U.K. sports-apparel retailer delayed publishing its results as auditors increase their scrutiny of its accounting, Bloomberg News reported. The U.K. retailer said Monday it needs more time to compile information as regulators review Grant Thornton’s audit of its fiscal 2018 results, and that the review may affect its financial guidance. The shares fell as much as 14% in morning trading in London.