A judge in London said on Friday he would grant an Irish-owned company the right to seek to seize some $9 billion (€8.1 billion) in assets from the Nigerian government over an aborted gas project, The Irish Times reported. Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) was awarded $6.6 billion in an arbitration decision over a failed project to build a gas-processing plant in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar. With interest payments, the sum now tops $9 billion – some 20 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign reserves.

South Africa’s Truworths International Ltd is considering closing loss-making stores of its UK-based shoe chain Office, joining the growing ranks of retailers to be hit by Britain’s gloomy trading environment, Reuters reported. Office is battling tough conditions in Britain due to uncertainty over Brexit, plus pressures on store-based retailers as shoppers move online. This resulted in the South African-listed clothing, shoes, jewellery and homeware retailer booking a non-cash impairment charge of 97 million pounds ($117.44 million) against Office’s assets.

The frontrunner in the bidding for British Steel is a Turkish investment group owned by the country’s military pension fund, which is chaired by a former two-star army general, the Financial Times reported. Ataer Holding, a wholly owned investment vehicle of the Turkish Armed Forces Assistance Fund, has been in negotiations with the UK government over financial support for a takeover of British Steel, which fell into compulsory liquidation in May.

One of Scotland’s leading providers of financial help, Scottishtrustdeed.co.uk, recently compiled a report on Scotland’s top insolvency hotspots from 2018, News Reel Hub reported. Glasgow and Edinburgh may have some of the highest numbers of insolvencies in terms of pure numbers, but it’s people living in rural communities, ‘fringe’ areas and Dundee who face the biggest risk of bankruptcy. The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s (AiB) latest report shows that a total of 4,644 people were declared bankrupt in the period 2017/18, representing an increase of 1.8% on the previous year.

It’s turning out to be a torrid summer for the usually sedate lead market. The London Metal Exchange (LME) lead market was roiled in early June by news of an unplanned outage at the Port Pirie lead smelter in Australia, Reuters reported. It’s just been upended again by a second shutdown of the plant, which is operated by Nyrstar, the Belgian company that had to be rescued from potential insolvency by trade house Trafigura. The second outage has seen LME time-spreads tighten again and the outright three-month price hit a two-week high of $2,101.50 per tonne on Monday.

A legal bid to prevent British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suspending parliament to stop lawmakers blocking a no-deal Brexit will be heard at a Scottish court next month, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. A group of about 70 lawmakers from opposition parties are backing a bid to have Scotland's highest civil court rule that Johnson cannot ask Queen Elizabeth to prorogue, or suspend, parliament before Britain leaves the European Union on Oct. 31.

Household income, spending and wealth rose at the start of the year, bolstered by a strong labour market, according to the latest data, but Brexit uncertainties left consumers gloomy about the future direction of the economy, the Financial Times reported.

Thomas Cook, the UK tour operator, lost nearly a fifth of its market value after it confirmed it was seeking a further £150m on top of the £750m already secured as part of a rescue deal with its debtholders, the Financial Times reported. The Financial Times revealed on Friday that Thomas Cook was in talks with bondholders to secure the additional capital, as part of a bailout involving its largest shareholder, the Chinese conglomerate Fosun, and its lending banks.

The British economy shrank in the second quarter for the first time in almost seven years as stockpiling activity slowed and Brexit uncertainty intensified against a backdrop of weaker global growth, the Financial Times reported. Output fell 0.2 per cent in the three months to June, worse than the flat performance expected by economists and down from a 0.5 per cent expansion in the first quarter, according to data from the Office for National Statistics released on Friday.

Boris Johnson arrived in Downing Street last month intent on putting “rocket boosters” under the economy, the Financial Times reported. But after the dismal growth figures released on Friday, the prime minister may count himself lucky if the UK manages to avoid falling into a recession by October 31, when he insists the UK will leave the EU.