Emoov is considering a pre-pack administration after a four-week search for a buyer has so far failed to seal a rescue deal for the cash-strapped digital estate agency, the Financial Times reported. Russell Quirk, chief executive, this week told the FT: “A pre-pack is not being ruled out” and that “time is of the essence . . . we are eagerly searching for someone to support the business”. Sky News reported on Thursday that Emoov was on the verge of appointing James Cowper Kreston, an accountancy firm, as administrator.

German economist Clemens Fuest described Italy as the “bigger problem, particularly in the medium term” as he claimed the impact of Brexit would be only a “short-term issue,” Daily Express reported. Italy has sent the eurozone into meltdown and the euro currency floundering after announcing its spending plans which include a deficit target of 2.4 percent for 2019. The budgetary measures enraged European Commission (EC) chiefs, who sensationally rejected the fiscal plans after claiming they breached previous spending agreements.

Prosecutors are still considering charges against one suspect arising from an investigation into State assets agency Nama’s €1.6 billion sale of loans to Northern Ireland-based developers, The Irish Times reported. Nama sold €6 billion worth of property loans to Northern-based developers to US company Cerberus in April 2014 for €1.6 billion in a deal that sparked criminal and parliamentary investigations.

Businesses are sidestepping tax bills amounting to tens of millions of pounds using an insolvency procedure that the government is considering banning, the Financial Times reported. That is the conclusion of an independent panel set up by the government to monitor the use of insolvency arrangements known as “pre-packs”. The Pre Pack Pool says some businesses have used the procedure to shed tax bills and pension liabilities.

With sterling debt investors shaken by the growing strain on the UK high street, British bed seller Dreams is turning to an unusual source of funding: Sweden. Owner Sun Capital Partners this week began marketing a €175m high-yield bond under Swedish law to fund a “dividend recapitalisation” of Dreams, a term for when private equity groups layer debt on a company to take money out for themselves, the Financial Times reported. The Florida-based firm bought the bed retailer out of administration five years ago and unsuccessfully sought to sell the business last year.

Struggling children’s goods retailer Mothercare on Thursday said negative press coverage in the past year had damaged its brand, causing sales in the UK to decline, the Financial Times reported. Mark Newton-Jones, chief executive, said that while he was not blaming the media for reporting the company’s difficulties, internal research “clearly showed that the Mothercare brand suffered damage from coverage of store closures”.

Therium Group Holdings Ltd., a leading provider of litigation finance globally with over $800 million of assets under management, has appointed Stephen Akers to lead its insolvency funding practice, based in London, Litigation Finance Journal reported. Stephen is one of the world’s leading insolvency practitioners, with a career stretching more than three decades, in which he has worked on some of the most complex, multi-jurisdictional insolvency cases involving substantial litigation.

The economic gap between the south and north of England has widened since the UK voted to leave the EU, according to new forecasts of regional economic growth published by the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence, the Financial Times reported. After adjusting for inflation, London’s economy is roughly 5 per cent bigger than it was at the time of the referendum compared to growth of about 1.3 per cent in the North East of England, the data said.

The Pension Protection Fund is expected to lodge a claim of £305m with Johnston Press’s administrators amid concern that its pension scheme was not treated appropriately when the newspaper group went into administration, the Financial Times reported. The expected action by the PPF, which compensates members of pension schemes of failed companies, came as the Pensions Regulator began to probe Friday’s deal to rescue Johnston Press. When a company enters administration, the PPF seeks to cover the cost of taking on its pension scheme.

Brexit is already weakening the UK’s grip on Europe’s capital markets, denting London’s status as a hub for millions of deals each day. Key parts of the trading infrastructure for equities, sovereign debt and repo markets are setting up in the Netherlands and Italy, the Financial Times reported. Banks are moving jobs to Paris and Frankfurt. This is “an invisible revolution in the European capital markets”, says Merel van Vroonhoven, chief executive of the AFM, the Dutch regulator.