Creditors and landlords of New Look overwhelmingly approved the British fashion retailer’s restructuring plan at a meeting on Wednesday, enabling it to stave off a potential fall into administration, the company said. Earlier this month, the chain, owned by South African investment heavyweight Brait and saddled with 1.2 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) of debt, said it would seek creditor approval for a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), Reuters reported.

Bargain Booze’s owner, Conviviality, has made clear it is likely to go bust unless it can raise £125m, as it issued its third profits warning in a month, The Guardian reported. The company, in a stock exchange announcement, said it was holding meetings with investors to raise £125m via a share placing that would help it pay a £30m tax bill due at the end of the month, fund overdue payments to creditors and repay a £30m loan.

Retailer Carpetright has agreed a loan with a shareholder in exchange for new shares to fund the short term running of the company, and may raise another 60 million pounds to try to turn its business around, it said on Wednesday. Shares in the company, which sells floor coverings, were up almost 6 percent at 43 pence at 0819 GMT.

Britain's Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said on Monday it commenced an investigation into the conduct of two former finance directors of bankrupt construction firm Carillion plc, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The FRC in January opened an investigation into KPMG's auditing of the now-collapsed Carillion covering the years 2014 to 2017. The investigation into former group finance directors Richard Adam and Zafar Khan will be conducted under the Accountancy Scheme, FRC said on Monday.

Ukip is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy after it was presented with a legal bill of £175,000 for its part in a libel action involving three Labour MPs in the run up to the 2015 election, The Guardian reported. If the party does not appeal, it must find the cash in the next fortnight, which may leave it unable to field candidates in the local elections in May. The party has been hovering on the edge of insolvency since its support collapsed following the resignation of Nigel Farage as leader after the EU referendum.

Manifest, an adviser to investors that collectively oversee more than £1tn in assets, has gone into administration, the Financial Times reported. Moore Stephens, the accountancy company, has been appointed as the administrator for the UK-based business, which analyses companies on behalf of investors and advises on corporate governance issues. Jeremy Willmont, partner at Moore Stephens and administrator of Manifest, said he was currently looking for a buyer for the proxy voting agency and was in talks with a “number of people”.

Default rates in the U.K. car-finance market are creeping up, adding to regulators’ concerns over the risks posed by consumer credit, Bloomberg News reported. The Financial Conduct Authority said on Thursday that the increase is driven by buyers with elevated credit risk, despite low interest rates and economic growth. These consumers account for about 3 percent of lending, the FCA said in a report. Overall, arrears and default rates remain low. British regulators are grappling with a surge in consumer credit, led by motor finance, which can pose risks to banks and the economy.

Company directors are dodging measures designed to stop abuse of the insolvency system so that they can avoid paying their creditors, new research suggests, The Independent reported. Experts have expressed concern about the number of “phoenix” companies, which are created by directors after a firm is put into what’s known as a pre-pack administration. In a pre-pack, a company’s assets are sold before an administrator is appointed.

A Manchester-based peer-to-peer lender has gone into administration after trading without a licence, putting £21m of investors’ money at risk, the Financial Times reported. Collateral (UK), a small P2P company offering pawnbroker-style and property-backed loans with 15 per cent returns, went into administration on Wednesday after it emerged that it was not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Electronics chain Maplin collapsed into insolvency on Wednesday, making it the second retailer to succumb to a brutal winter for Britain’s consumer economy in the space of just over an hour, the Financial Times reported. Graham Harris, who became chief executive only last month, said: “I can confirm this morning that it has not been possible to secure a solvent sale of the business and as a result we now have no alternative but to enter into an administration process.