Lebara announced on Monday that it will not meet a deadline to file audited annual results, putting the telecoms company at risk of defaulting on its bonds and adding to its recent string of financial reporting issues, the Financial Times reported. The terms of Lebara’s €350m bond dictate that it has to file audited annual accounts 120 days after the end of its financial year, which takes it through to the end of April. Lebara’s Dutch holding company Vieo announced on Monday that it would not meet this deadline, however, and would instead publish accounts “in the coming weeks”.

Economic growth figures on Friday came in weaker than expected, lowering the pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates in May, the Financial Times reported. The Office for National Statistics said the slowdown was not because of poor weather in February and March but was due to “pockets of weakness more broadly across the economy”. Construction suffered the most during the quarter, down by 3.3 per cent compared with the previous three months. However, the bulk of the decline in building activity was in January before the snows hit.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said that there is “a real risk” that no agreement will be reached with the UK in talks on its withdrawal from the political bloc, the Irish Times reported. Speaking on a visit to the Border area, Mr Barnier said that the EU was preparing for all options, including the possibility that Brussels and London cannot reach a deal on the UK’s departure in March 2019. Negotiations have become bogged down over how to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.

Administrators for collapsed UK brokerage Beaufort Securities have defended their plans to use customer funds to cover the cost of the insolvency proceedings, in the face of an angry backlash, the Financial Times reported. Beaufort was shut by UK regulators in March, just hours before the US Department of Justice brought criminal charges against the company for its alleged involvement in securities fraud and money laundering.

Administrators for Beaufort Securities, the disgraced UK broker that was closed down by regulators in March, have said it could cost as much as £100m to return the cash and assets held by the company, currently valued at £550m, to its thousands of private investor clients, the Financial Times reported.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has declared mortgage broker Blevins Franks Mortgage Services in default. Blevins Franks was a trading name of Mortgage Partner Services Limited of Regents Park Road, London. The firm has also traded as Blackstone Franks Mortgage Services Limited. The FSCS says the firm went into default in March and that consumers can get their money back as a result of dealing with a failed firm. Read more. (Subscription required.)

The plot to reverse Brexit is missing a key ally: U.K. business. Companies have been among the most outspoken critics of the split from the European Union, and many have much to lose from the divorce. But as a group of lawmakers tries to engineer a second referendum, business leaders are recoiling. Worse than Brexit is prolonged uncertainty. “Business likes certainty and I can’t see how discussion of a second referendum helps create that certainty when the negotiations are not even concluded," Miles Celic, chief executive officer of TheCityUK, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Britain has launched a “root and branch” review of its audit watchdog after corporate scandals raised questions about its ability to police how accountants check the books of companies, Reuters reported. The independent review of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) aims to bolster Britain’s reputation for upholding corporate standards, seen as critical to maintaining the country’s attractiveness for investment after it leaves the European Union next year.

Beleaguered British floor coverings retailer Carpetright has struck an emergency agreement with its lenders to close or exit leases of at least 92 shops in a restructuring that will affect 300 jobs. Carpetright, which has warned on profits three times since December, said it was entering into a creditors’ voluntary arrangement, which is a type of restructuring plan designed to keep businesses out of formal insolvency proceedings, the Financial Times reported.

The final UK stores of children's retailer Toys R Us are to close by April 24, two months after the British arm of the company collapsed into administration, the Financial Times reported. Administrators from insolvency specialist Moorfields Advisory said on Thursday all of the remaining 75 Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores in the UK would close between April 18 and April 24, resulting in the loss of 2,054 jobs. Employees had been informed and would be up to and including their last day, the administrators said.