At the Whitchurch Care Home, emergency buzzers went unanswered, some medicines were not dispensed and many of its frail and elderly residents had not been given a bath, shower or a wash for a month, an official inspector’s report found, the Financial Times reported. A broken elevator meant residents on the second floor could not be taken to hospital appointments. The dismal conditions at the care home in Bristol, south-west England, found in January last year, were a sign of the financial pressures on its manager Four Seasons, Britain’s second-largest care home provider.

German pharma company Aenova is being overhauled by owner BC Partners, which is placing a new capital structure to strengthen the company and increase investor confidence, banking sources said, Reuters reported. Aenova returned to Europe’s leveraged loan market for the first time in 5.5 years, launching a €440m term loan B on February 3 to refinance some of its existing debt. In addition to the new term loan, BC Partners is also injecting €100m of new equity into Aenova and has also raised €100m of subordinated, preplaced PIK.

The French government is set to block the sale of its British Steel factory to Jingye, throwing doubts on the rescue of the failed UK manufacturer. In October, Chinese conglomerate Jingye agreed to buy British Steel in a £50m rescue deal, saving 5,000 jobs and promising £1.2bn investment, the Financial Times reported. For the takeover of all of British Steel’s assets to go ahead, Jingye needs approval from authorities in Paris as the steelmaker’s plant in Hayange, northern France, is deemed a strategic industrial asset.

French retail group Fnac Darty is being sued for £115m by the liquidator to Comet, the UK electrical chain it used to own. Fnac Darty sold Comet for £2 a year before it collapsed but received £115m as part of a controversial financing agreement with the new owners, the Financial Times reported. The failure of Comet in 2012 left UK taxpayers footing a £44m bill and more than 6,000 staff losing their jobs.

The administrators to collapsed electricals retailer Comet Group have been handed a record UK insolvency fine of £1m for failures related to their independence, the Financial Times reported. Deloitte and two of its former partners, Neville Kahn and Christopher Farrington, who both left the Big Four accountancy firm during a five-year investigation, did not ensure that they were objective as administrators, according to the findings of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Thousands of people who seek debt advice are potentially ending up even worse off because of the aggressive marketing of repayment plans that they are later unable to afford, the Financial Times reported. Statistics published on Thursday by the UK’s Insolvency Service showed the number of people entering Individual Voluntary Arrangements, which allow people to pay off part of their debts on a schedule agreed with their creditors, rose to a new high of 78,000 in 2019, up almost 10 per cent from 2018.

British car production fell to its lowest level in almost a decade last year as warnings intensified that the UK needed to “re-establish” its reputation as a place to invest, the Financial Times reported. Output fell 14 per cent to 1.3m, the worst since 2010, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders on Thursday. The decline of diesel, falling sales to China, and production shutdowns in anticipation of Brexit all hit output, pushing exports down by 14.7 per cent and production for the home market down by 12.3 per cent.

When John Zhao sealed the £900m takeover of the UK’s PizzaExpress in 2014 he burnished his reputation as a pioneer in China’s private equity industry, the Financial Times reported. Two years later Hony Capital, his buyout firm, ploughed money into WeWork as the New York shared-office provider set its sights on an aggressive expansion in China. Both deals shared a simple premise: take well-known western brands to China and they will flourish.

Turkish conglomerate Cengiz Holding is prepared to bid for British Steel if the planned sale of the UK company to Jingye collapses, adding to pressure on the Chinese group to finalise the deal in coming weeks, the Financial Times reported. “We are watching developments closely and are ready to make a bid for the whole of British Steel,” said Omer Mafa, chief executive of Cengiz, in a statement on Sunday.

Almost half a million businesses in the UK are in significant financial distress, the highest number on record, according to Begbies Traynor, the insolvency firm, the Financial Times reported. Data from the restructuring specialist found that businesses outside London in particular had shown signs of financial difficulties, raising additional questions for Boris Johnson’s government as it talks about ‘levelling up’ growth in the regions.