Debenhams Plc rejected billionaire Mike Ashley’s latest rescue offer, increasing the odds that he and fellow shareholders will get wiped out as lenders take control of the troubled retailer, Bloomberg News reported. Ashley’s Sports Direct International Plc said Debenhams turned down its proposal to underwrite a 150 million-pound ($196 million) equity raising on the same day that restructuring talks with creditors are due to reach a conclusion. Ashley disclosed the last-ditch offer earlier on Monday, a move to prevent losing much of his equity investment in the department-store chain.

A British court has shut down UK Renewable Investments (UKRI) after it failed to pay back millions of pounds of investor funds, the government said on Monday. The Business and Property Courts in Manchester, northwest England, wound the firm up last week and has appointed a liquidator, Reuters reported. Between July 2015 and September 2016, Darlington, northeast England-based UKRI sold corporate bonds, raising 2.5 million pounds ($3.3 million). Investors were told the funds would go to developing plants which generate renewable energy.

Debenhams Plc is edging closer to giving lenders control in a move that would thwart efforts by its largest shareholder Mike Ashley to take the reins, Bloomberg News reported. The struggling U.K. retailer is preparing a so-called prepackaged administration because billionaire Ashley’s Sports Direct International Plc hasn’t yet agreed to the lenders’ terms, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as talks are private. Sports Direct has until Monday to meet their requirements or risk losing its entire stake of about 30 percent.

Almost a million high earners in the UK have been hit by steep increases in their tax bills because thresholds set more than a decade ago do not rise in line with inflation, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In 2008, the government set a £100,000 income threshold above which the tax-free personal allowance would be gradually withdrawn, creating a band in which people pay 60p of every £1 they earn to the exchequer, the Financial Times reported. The number of affected people has risen rapidly, from 647,000 in 2007-08 to 986,000.

The UK financial watchdog has issued a warning to customers over the risk of peer-to-peer loans held within an individual savings account. The Financial Conduct Authority said it had seen evidence that Innovative Finance Isas — used to shelter peer-to-peer loans from income and capital gains tax — were being marketed alongside cash Isas despite the fact they offer far less protection to consumers, the Financial Times reported. It follows the high-profile collapse of London Capital & Finance, a company selling unregulated minibonds, in January.

Debenhams is set to burn through tens millions of pounds in fees after securing its latest rescue deal, ratcheting up the pressure on the struggling retailer as it battles to stem falling sales, cut costs and fight off the attentions of its biggest shareholder, the Financial Times reported. Last week, the department store group agreed a refinancing package with its lenders and bondholders, designed to give it more time to rationalise its store estate, reduce its operating costs by £80m and improve its product offering.

The Bank of England has been meeting with direct lenders to gauge the industry’s resilience to slowing growth, according to two people familiar with the matter. At least two of the biggest U.K. private credit funds met separately with members of the central bank’s financial stability unit in the past month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private, Bloomberg News reported. The meetings were part of the BOE’s efforts to gauge potential sources of stress in an economic downturn, they said.

The European Central Bank’s second-in-command has warned that markets are not properly pricing in the risk of a no deal Brexit — an outcome the vice-president, Luis de Guindos, warned could lead to a further slowdown in growth across the single currency area, the Financial Times reported. Mr de Guindos, the ECB vice-president, told lawmakers at a European Parliamentary hearing: “Markets have not priced in the possibility of a no deal scenario.” He added: “We are living in a moment of slowdown of the global and the European economy.

The UK tax authority has reported the suicide of an individual facing a new “loan charge” to its complaints body for the first time, as the minister responsible for the policy rejected criticism it could lead to mass bankruptcies, the Financial Times reported. From Friday 5 April, at least 50,000 contractors who avoided national insurance and income tax by using schemes that paid them mostly in loans will face the charge. It will tax outstanding loans, which HM Revenue & Customs describes as disguised remuneration, from up to 20 years ago in a single financial year.

Debenhams has presented Sports Direct with a put up or shut up ultimatum as it told its biggest shareholder to finance a formal rescue for the department store chain or face being wiped out, the Financial Times reported. The struggling retailer said it had secured a fresh financial lifeline of £200m of new funding, but only half would be available immediately.