Mike Ashley said Christmas shopping has been so bad for retailers that it “will literally smash them to pieces”, in a dire warning that sent shares in his Sports Direct chain sharply lower and spread more gloom on UK high streets, the Financial Times reported. Shares in Debenhams, Next and Marks and Spencer all dropped more than 3 per cent on a day when the broader market was flat. Helen Connolly, chief executive of fashion retailer Bonmarché, echoed Mr Ashley’s sentiments. She warned that conditions were “unprecedented” and “significantly worse” than during the financial crisis.

Troubled low-cost African carrier Fastjet Plc said on Thursday it had enough cash to operate until Dec. 21 and that it had met the conditions for an open offer and equity refinancing to raise funds, Reuters reported. The company in September announced a fundraising and equity refinancing aimed at increasing its equity base by at least $40 million, which will give the airline enough working capital until the end of 2019. The airline said it had cash balance of $7 million as of Wednesday, of which $6.5 million was restricted cash held inside Zimbabwe.

Britons may not get a second referendum on European Union membership, but tonight’s vote of confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May among Conservative lawmakers is a proxy for it: The elected representatives of a party whose supporters chose overwhelmingly to leave the EU will fight over which vision of Brexit makes more sense. Nearly all want to honor the result of the 2016 referendum; they just disagree over how to do that.

London-based augmented reality startup Blippar is said to be facing administration and is “on the brink of collapse” after a dispute between its investors, British luxury property developer Nick Candy and Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd. A report by The Times said Khazanah has blocked an emergency fundraising by the unicorn startup, causing Blippar to reach out to its shareholders, saying it had been left with “no current option other than to give notice to start insolvency proceedings”.

One of the UK’s biggest pension funds is to lend to small businesses through online platform ThinCats, in a move that could transform the way they are financed. BAE Systems Pensions on Monday announced a £200m programme with ThinCats, a peer-to-peer lender that targets fast-growing small and medium-sized businesses. UK SMEs remain far more reliant on bank lending than those in many other developed countries and the government has been encouraging pension funds to provide finance to them, the Financial Times reported.

Shares in Interserve lost more than half their value on Monday after the British support services provider said it was in rescue talks which may hand control of the company to creditors in a bid to avoid a Carillion-style collapse, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The Reading-based outsourcer, which employs 75,000 worldwide and has thousands of UK government contracts to clean hospitals and serve school meals, said on Sunday it would seek to cut its debt to 1.5 times core earnings in talks with lenders it hopes to complete early next year.

Vijay Mallya, the fugitive Indian tycoon fighting multiple cases in the U.K. after defaulting on loans, lost a bid to avoid extradition to his home country where he faces charges of fraud and money laundering, Bloomberg News reported. Judge Emma Arbuthnot ruled against Mallya at a hearing in London Monday, largely rejecting Mallya’s arguments that the case was politically motivated. "I do not accept the courts in India are there to do what the politicians tell them what to do," Arbuthnot told a packed courtroom.

Troubled low-cost African carrier Fastjet Plc warned on Friday it may have to go into administration, shut shop or sell itself as it had only enough cash to keep it in business for another seven days, Reuters reported. The airline, which had a cash balance of $6.8 million as of Thursday, said it might have to formally hire insolvency advisers for the process if its cash balance does not improve.

Monarch Airlines’ collapse last year put at risk £30m of Manchester Airports Group’s earnings, as it hurried to find airlines to fill slots that had brought 2m passengers a year through the UK’s third-busiest airport, the Financial Times reported. MAG has since replaced — or “backfilled” — the 2m passenger capacity previously used by Monarch, chief executive Charlie Cornish said on Thursday. But filling the slots took time, Mr Cornish said, and left the group facing a tricky trading situation.