British Steel was forced into liquidation on Wednesday though Britain’s second largest steelmaker will continue to trade and supply its customers, the official receiver said, Reuters reported. “The company in liquidation is continuing to trade and supply its customers while I consider options for the business. Staff have been paid and will continue to be employed,” the official receiver said.
The future of one of the U.K.’s few remaining steel producers hangs in the balance as its private equity owners seek an emergency bailout from the government, Bloomberg News reported. British Steel is asking for about 30 million pounds ($38 million) from the government and has warned that it will fall into administration without the support, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. During a question and answer session in the House of Commons, the government said talks with the company are ongoing, but offered no details.
Thomas Cook intends to push ahead with expansion plans despite growing doubt over the 178-year old UK travel group’s ability to continue trading, the Financial Times reported. The company said it would open its 13th hotel of the summer season this weekend as it sought to play down fears over its future days after it stock plummeted as an investment bank branded its equity potentially worthless. The new hotel, based in Chania, Crete, will open on Saturday and be Thomas Cook’s first family-focused own-brand property.
Jamie Oliver’s U.K. restaurant business collapsed into insolvency, leaving more than 1,000 jobs at risk after the celebrity chef failed to turn around the performance of his eateries, Bloomberg News reported. Accounting firm KPMG has been appointed to oversee the immediate closure of 22 of the “Naked Chef” star’s Jamie’s Italian, Fifteen London and Barbecoa restaurants in the U.K. The procedures do not affect Jamie Oliver’s international business. The group operates 25 U.K. restaurants and all but three have immediately closed, resulting in 1,000 lost jobs.
Signs of a turnaround at its marquee Jaguar Land Rover unit may not be enough to ease the challenges facing India’s oldest and most-storied business empire, Bloomberg News reported. The Tata Group bought the British luxury carmaker in 2008 for $2.3 billion, and it’s lately become a drag on the salt-to-software conglomerate, racking up losses in three quarters through December. Although Jaguar posted a net income of 119 million pounds ($151 million) this week, debt at owner Tata Motors Ltd.
Jaguar Land Rover crashed to a £3.6 billion (€4.1 billion) annual loss as it was weighed down by a slump in Chinese sales, The Irish Times reported. The luxury car manufacturer, which announced 4,500 job cuts earlier this year, was heavily dragged down by a £3.3 billion (€3.7 billion) writedown in the third quarter. It slumped from a £400 million (€455 million) profit in the previous financial year as it was hit by the economic slowdown in China.
Thomas Cook Group Plc’s crisis deepened as the debt-laden travel group warned of another tough summer and said it will get a 300 million-pound ($385 million) rescue loan only if it makes progress with the sale of its airline, Bloomberg News reported. The stock fell to the lowest since 2012 Thursday and the bonds hit a record low after the world’s second-biggest tour operator posted a 1.1 billion-pound writedown at a U.K. arm hurt by the Brexit saga.
Landsec, the UK’s largest listed property company by assets, saw the value of its portfolio shed more than half a billion pounds in the year to March as a crisis in the retail sector took its toll, the Financial Times reported. The company, whose holdings include a stake in the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent, said its assets declined in value by £557m to £13.8bn, led by a 15.5 per cent drop in the value of its retail parks and an 11.7 per cent fall for its shopping centres. The value of the group’s assets had slid by £91m in the previous year. The decline in retail,
British Steel has asked the government for tens of millions of pounds in emergency funding as the UK’s second-largest steel producer battles to avoid a collapse that would lead to thousands of job losses, the Financial Times reported. The company blamed uncertainty caused by Brexit as it confirmed it was in talks with ministers about “a package of additional support”, which one person briefed on the discussions said was for £70m-£80m.
The High Court of England and Wales has recognized Singapore’s new moratorium law for companies unable to pay their creditors, Vantage Asia reported. The ruling is positive for debt workouts across different jurisdictions and a boost to the city-state’s ambition to become Asia’s debt restructuring hub.