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.

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.

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.

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.

Former Carillion directors could be forced to contribute to the collapsed contractor’s pension scheme after the pensions watchdog confirmed it is investigating whether it has the power to do so, the Financial Times reported. The move by the Pensions Regulator came after MPs on the work and pensions committee on Monday urged the watchdog to go after Carillion’s former directors “for everything they’ve got”.

The French financial regulator has said it will not seek changes to “delegation” rules — a move that could have restricted UK fund managers serving overseas clients after Brexit, the Financial Times reported. Current rules permit asset management companies to operate in multiple locations, including London, and the City has become a global centre of portfolio management. It had been feared, however, that UK managers could be cut off from European clients if national regulators sought stricter regulation.

House of Fraser’s creditors have approved the recovery plan proposed by the department store chain to close more than half its shops in an effort to avoid financial collapse, putting up to 6,000 jobs at risk, the Financial Times reported. As part of the restructuring, the retailer will close 31 of its 59 UK stores, including flagship properties on London’s Oxford Street and in Cardiff, and will drastically reduce the rents on 10 other outlets, under a company voluntary agreement.