Estate agents aren’t popular at the best of times, but Countrywide Plc, one of Britain’s biggest residential agents, really takes the biscuit. The massively discounted rights issue it announced Thursday will increase the share count by almost six times, a Bloomberg View reported. To nobody’s surprise, the stock plunged almost two-thirds, bringing the decline so far this year to about 85 percent. The share sale is fully underwritten and will raise about 129 million pounds ($169 million) net of fees — a bit more than the market value the previous day.

Profits almost doubled at Serco in the first six months of the year, with the outsourcer heralding the earnings growth as a sign its five-year strategy was yielding results despite “less than ideal” market conditions, the Financial Times reported. A drop-off in contracts sent revenues down almost 9 per cent in the half-year to June from the same period a year earlier to £1.4bn, exacerbated by currency headwinds, as acquisitions failed to offset contracts that came to an end.

House of Fraser is fighting for its survival after the Hong Kong-listed company that also owns toy shop Hamleys abandoned plans to rescue one of the UK’s oldest and more storied retail chains, the Financial Times reported. C.banner International, a Chinese fashion group, said on Wednesday it was “impracticable and inadvisable” to proceed with acquiring a controlling stake in the department store, which would have given the company a £70m lifeline, because of a collapse of its own share price over the past month.

U.K. consumers maintained their appetite for debt in June as the Bank of England considers whether to raise interest rates for only the second time since 2007, Bloomberg News reported. Unsecured lending rose 8.8 percent from a year earlier, the same rate as in the previous two months, the U.K. central bank said on Monday. Consumers added 1.6 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) to their debts in June -- above the average of the previous six months. Credit cards are accounting for an increasing share of consumer credit, outpacing personal loans, overdrafts and car finance, the BOE said.

The number of people in England and Wales filing for insolvency hit a more than six-year high in the second quarter, adding to conflicting economic signals for Bank of England officials as they consider whether to raise interest rates next week, Reuters reported. Seasonally adjusted data from the Insolvency Service showed 28,951 people registered as insolvent between April and June — up 27 percent on a year ago and the largest total since early 2012 when Britain last flirted with recession.

The UK financial regulator is planning to crack down on peer-to-peer lenders and crowdfunding platforms, following concerns that investors could be taking on more risk than they realise, the Finacnial Times reported. In a long-awaited review of the sector published on Friday, the Financial Conduct Authority proposed tougher rules for the peer-to-peer industry, which has grown dramatically in the last decade as banks have retreated from high-risk lending and interest rates have fallen.

Johnston Press is exploring options to restructure or refinance its debt, the British regional newspaper publisher said on Thursday in a statement issued after its shares more than doubled, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Top investor activist Custos Group is not in discussions with the company, however, after offering to help refinance it on Tuesday, CEO Christen Ager-Hanssen told Reuters. "I'm not in discussions with them -- not for the moment," Ager-Hanssen said.

Intu Properties' chief executive officer is stepping down as the British shopping centre operator swung to a loss and warned of lower rental income growth for the full year, sending its shares down 9 percent to a record low. Intu's update follows a failed 3.4 billion-pound takeover bid by rival Hammerson in April and a string of bankruptcies of retailers that has hit the company hard, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Banks from Britain must draw up plans showing how they will staff and operate their new bases in the European Union after Brexit to avoid ending up with "empty shells,” the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. It is the clearest sign yet that the shift in banking jobs from Britain may rise significantly from the modest 3,500 to 12,000 forecast in the short term by the City of London financial district. About 20 banks have applied so far for licences to open bases or expand existing ones in the eurozone by March 2019.

Hammerson plans to sell £1.1bn of properties by the end of 2019 and buy back up to £300m of shares as the shopping centre landlord tries to appease unhappy shareholders and the activist investors Elliott, the Financial Times reported. Setting out a new strategy after a turbulent period of failed takeovers earlier this year, the FTSE 250 group said it would increase non-UK exposure above half of its portfolio for the first time in its recent history.