Baby goods retailer Mothercare is seeking to raise £32.5m from existing shareholders and will increase the number of store closures as it struggles to adapt to challenging conditions on the UK’s high streets. The capital raising, which is larger than originally planned, will be at 19p a share, well below Friday’s closing level of 28.6p, and the proceeds will be used to reduce debt, the Financial Times reported. Mothercare’s shares fell 9 per cent in early London trade to 26p.

The collapse of Carillion exposed the risks of using private companies to cut the cost of delivering public services and its failure could be repeated if the government does not learn lessons, lawmakers said on Monday. Carillion, which employed 43,000 people to provide services in defense, education, health and transport, collapsed in January, becoming the largest construction bankruptcy in British history, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. It left creditors and the firm's pensioners facing steep losses and put thousands of jobs at risk.

Britain’s accounting watchdog is investigating KPMG’s audit of drinks firm Conviviality’s financial statements, weeks after highlighting an “unacceptable deterioration” in the auditor’s work with top British firms, Reuters reported. KPMG denied any shortcomings in its audit of Conviviality, which entered administration in April. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is probing Conviviality’s financial statements for the year ended April 2017. The FRC also said it was looking into the preparation and approval of Conviviality’s financial statements and other financial information.

Britain’s biggest labour union said on Tuesday it launched legal action against Carillion on behalf of former workers of the company, whose jobs were made redundant following the collapse of the British outsourcer in January, Reuters reported. The members were employed by Carillion’s group company Planned Maintenance Engineering Ltd on a contract at Britain’s GCHQ spy agency headquarters in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Debt at UK listed companies has soared to hit a record high of £390bn as companies have scrambled to maintain dividend payouts in response to shareholder demand despite weak profitability, the Financial Times reported.

One of the UK’s leading insolvency practitioners, who generated more than £25 million in fees from the collapses of Woolworths, HMV and Comet, has resigned from Deloitte amid an investigation into his conduct, The Times reported. Neville Kahn is one of three Deloitte partners under investigation by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) over the administration of Comet, the electrical retailer which collapsed in 2012 at a cost to the taxpayer of £45 million.

Novo Banco is facing a fresh challenge from a London hedge fund that says the bank has unwittingly defaulted on certain bonds, further complicating a crucial debt sale the Portuguese lender is looking to complete this week, the Financial Times reported. Novo Banco, the lender created out of the failure of Portugal’s Banco Espírito Santo (BES) in 2014, is already the subject of long-running litigation from international investors including BlackRock and Pimco, who lost money due to a controversial debt transfer at the end of 2015.

Struggling flooring retailer Carpetright has posted a £71m annual loss and warned that trading continues to be difficult, prompting further falls in its share price, the Financial Times reported. The company on Tuesday said that “adverse publicity” about its restructuring had affected both suppliers, which had responded by tightening the terms on which they would extend credit for purchases, and customers.

Vodafone's Ghana business plans to list on the local stock market after restructuring its loans, the head of the local unit told Reuters on Tuesday. Yolanda Zoleka Cuba said Vodafone was in talks with the West African country, which owns a 30 percent stake, to restructure its debt, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The world's largest mobile group by revenue paid $900 million for a 70 percent stake in state-run Ghana telecom in 2008 while the government retained the remaining 30 percent with an enterprise value of around $1.3 billion at the time.

Countrywide, the UK’s largest estate agency group, plans to tap investors for fresh funds to reduce debt after issuing a fresh profit warning as it struggles with a lacklustre property market and a botched 2015 restructuring, the Financial Times reported. Shares in the company plunged as much as 28 per cent to 57.5p in response to the fundraising plans and profit warning. Countrywide has struggled as nervous sellers have held off on listing properties amid stalling price growth in the housing market. Wider political and economic uncertainties have also undermined the market.