Restaurant chain Côte is reportedly looking into closing branches in a move to shore up its finances, the Financial Times reported. Sky News reported that Côte, which is owned by private equity group BC Partners, is planning to close a number of branches that trade under the Limeyard and Jackson & Rye brands. However, the closures are unlikely to come as part of a company voluntary agreement, a deal with creditors that a string of distressed high street retailers have already resorted to this year — including Jamie’s Italian and burger chain Byron — in order to avoid insolvency.

Shopping centre landlords Hammerson and Intu are bracing for negotiations with House of Fraser over tenancies and rent reductions after the struggling retailer unveiled restructuring plans that involve store closures, the Financial Times reported. House of Fraser owner Nanjing Xinjiekou, which has not yet disclosed which stores will be affected, said on Wednesday it would look to reach a deal with landlords to reduce its rental bill. Hammerson and Intu are among those landlords that have most exposure to the group.

Brexit and a string of bankruptcies are driving up the cost of UK companies protecting against their customers going out of business, the head of the world’s largest credit insurer has said. Trade credit insurance protects companies against the risk that their customers go bust before paying up for goods or services, the Financial Times reported. More than £340bn of UK trade is being covered by trade credit policies, according to the Association of British Insurers.

British authorities are promising to continue their investigation of Cambridge Analytica, the campaign consultant at the center of the Facebook privacy scandal, even though the company is going out of business, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Cambridge Analytica announced Wednesday that it plans to file for bankruptcy in Britain and the U.S., saying negative publicity surrounding allegations that it improperly harvested data from millions of Facebook users drove potential clients away. The U.K.

House of Fraser is to close stores, potentially putting hundreds of jobs at risk, in a restructuring deal that will give control of the retail chain to the Chinese owner of Hamleys. C.banner is buying a 51% stake in the parent group of the ailing department store group, The Guardian reported. The buyout will involve the acquisition of shares from Nanjing Cenbest, part of China’s Sanpower conglomerate, which will retain a minority stake. C.banner has also agreed to pay a further £70m for new shares leading to a “significant capital injection” in House of Fraser.

Cambridge Analytica, the firm embroiled in a controversy over its handling of Facebook data, should not escape scrutiny through its decision to shut down, the chairman of a committee of British lawmakers said. Cambridge Analytica and its parent, SCL Elections, said on Wednesday they would begin bankruptcy proceedings after losing clients and facing mounting legal fees following reports the company wrongly harvested Facebook users' personal data from 2014, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

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.

Britain’s Interserve Plc reported a deeper annual pretax loss on Monday, sending its shares 20 percent lower, as CEO Debbie White leads a turnaround of the construction and support services company, Reuters reported. Shareholders on Friday approved a funding plan agreed with creditors in March after the company had warned it might breach covenants. On Monday, White, who took over as CEO in September, gave a blunt assessment of the company’s “inefficient operating model”.