McColl’s Retail Group Plc expects full-year core earnings to be flat and posted a drop in first-half like-for-like sales, as supplies were hit after last year’s collapse of cigarette wholesaler Palmer & Harvey, sending its shares down 15 percent on Monday, Reuters reported. The British convenience retailer also said Chief Financial Officer Simon Fuller was leaving the company. The company now expects 2018 full-year adjusted core earnings to be at a similar level to the prior year after a 2.7 percent drop in first-half like-for-like sales.

The number of UK companies suffering "significant" financial distress has increased nearly 10pc compared with last year and London-based firms are feeling the biggest strain, new research shows. More than 470,000 businesses felt the pinch at the end of June, according to insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor, an increase of 9pc on last year, The Telegraph reported. Those based in London are struggling the most. The capital was the country's worst performing region, with the rate of firms facing serious financial difficulty rocketing 17pc compared with June last year.

A group of landlords have filed a legal challenge to House of Fraser’s company voluntary arrangement (CVA) after creditors approved the plan to close more than half of its stores, the Financial Times reported. The group, which is advised by the property agents JLL and restructuring group Begbies Traynor, said it “believes that certain landlords have been unfairly prejudiced during this process and that there have been alleged material irregularities in the implementation of House of Fraser’s CVA”.

Royal Bank of Scotland said a scheme to compensate small firms hurt by its restructuring unit will close to new complaints after it paid out just 10 million pounds so far for direct losses, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. RBS announced the scheme in November 2016 and set aside 400 million pounds to compensate thousands of small businesses that say they were mistreated by RBS's Global Restructuring Group (GRG).

Former traders for Barclays and Deutsche Bank were sentenced to a combined 13 years in prison by a London judge for conspiring to rig interest-rate benchmarks, the Irish Times reported. Christian Bittar (46), a Deutsche Bank employee, was sentenced to five years and four months, while the man described by prosecutors as his fellow mastermind in manipulating the market, Barclays’ Philippe Moryoussef, received eight years. The 50-year-old Moryoussef was sentenced in absentia after staying in France to avoid the trial.

The rate of personal insolvencies in Sunderland has significantly increased over the last two years, official data has revealed. In 2015, 24.8 adults per 10,000 were declared insolvent in Sunderland, according to Insolvency Service figures. However by 2017 that figure had risen to 28.1, an increase of 13.6%, the Sunderland Echo reported. Insolvency is when someone cannot pay their debts, and has to arrange a plan with an official body to pay off creditors. This can include being declared bankrupt.

The UK’s biggest provider of apprenticeships is to change hands for the second time in less than a month after the man who purchased Learndirect on June 23 agreed to sell its apprenticeships arm for £1 to Staffline, the listed employment agency. The sale comes less than a month after Lloyds Development Capital, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, sold the whole of the troubled Learndirect business to Stonebridge Group, a privately owned company controlled by Wayne Janse Van Rensburg, a South African-born entrepreneur, the Financial Times reported.

British department store retailer Debenhams said it had a healthy cash position after a media report on Sunday saying insurers had cut cover for its suppliers sent its shares lower, the Irish Times reported. Shares in Debenhams fell as much as 8 per cent on Monday on the back of a Sunday Times report that the retailer, which has issued three profit warnings this year, was facing a cash crunch after credit insurers reduced or refused cover for its suppliers.

Over a quarter of UK companies have suffered a hit to their finances following the insolvency of a customer, supplier or debtor in the last six months, according to new research, Business Matters reported. The research found the financial impact of the insolvency of another business was described as “very negative” by one in ten UK companies, and as “somewhat negative” by 16 per cent of respondents. The figures are evidence of the so-called ‘domino effect’, where one company’s insolvency will increase the insolvency risk for others.

Administrators for SCL Elections, an affiliate of Cambridge Analytica, attempted to sell the company but only received four proposals, including an offer for £1 for the scandal ridden data firm’s brand name, according to a corporate filing on Saturday. Cambridge Analytica, SCL Elections and several other related companies in May began Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings in the US and filed for insolvency in the UK after the fallout from revelations about Cambridge Analytica’s role in a massive leak of Facebook data, the Financial Times reported.