Excalibur Steel, a management buyout group interested in purchasing Tata Steel’s British steelmaking operations, is ready to lend its support to rival bidder Liberty House, according to industry sources, the Irish Times reported on a Reuters story. Tata said in March it wanted to sell its UK steel operation, which has been hit by cheap Chinese imports, rising costs and weak demand. The decision prompted a political scramble to find a buyer to save the thousands of jobs at stake. The deadline for final bid submissions is on Monday.

Yousuf Bhailok, the Preston-based property millionaire, is pulling out of the race to save BHS after administrators told buyers to sweeten their offers by tens of millions of pounds, the Telegraph reported. The administrators are also demanding that all of the retailers shops are included in any bid. Mr Bhailok confirmed to The Telegraph that he had withdrawn his interest. He pulled out of the process after being told that he would have to make an offer to buy all of BHS’s 164 shops, including 40 loss-making stores that are on the administrators' “red list”.

The Bank of England said Thursday that a vote to leave the European Union could slam the brakes on growth in the U.K., push up unemployment and stoke inflation, in its clearest warning yet about the potential economic costs surrounding a referendum on membership next month, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The foreign companies that hold more than 100,000 UK properties will have to reveal their true owners under a transparency proposal announced by David Cameron. The step was greeted by transparency campaigners as “a great move” and was aimed at energising an international summit on corruption being hosted by the prime minister on Thursday, the Financial Times reported. Mr Cameron pledged last year to stem the “dirty money” and “plundered or laundered cash” flowing into British properties, more than £120bn of which are owned by offshore companies.

The British government on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding department store retailer BHS's collapse into administration last week, Reuters reported. Business Secretary Sajid Javid has instructed the Insolvency Service to fast-track its inquiry, which will also specifically consider the extent to which the conduct of the directors of BHS led to its insolvency.

When British Prime Minister David Cameron decided to call a referendum on the U.K.’s membership in the European Union, he did so in the belief that it would settle the question once and for all. Deep divisions over the issue in Britain and within Mr. Cameron’s own party were undermining not only the U.K.’s relationship with the EU, but the stability of the EU itself. Confident he would win, Mr. Cameron believed the referendum would heal the division in the Conservative Party and allow the U.K.

India said on Thursday it had asked Britain to deport Vijay Mallya, the liquor tycoon who flew to London last month as bankers pressed him to repay about $1.4 billion owed by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, Reuters reported. The Ministry of External Affairs has written to the British High Commission seeking Mallya's return so that "his presence can be secured for investigations against him" under India's anti-moneylaundering law, spokesman Vikas Swarup told reporters.

A group of notable British economists countered claims the U.K. would be poorer if it left the European Union, a move that follows a barrage of gloomy forecasts for the British economy if voters choose to leave the bloc in a coming referendum, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a report published Thursday by the eight “Economists for Brexit,” the group said the U.K. economy would be better off outside the EU and could be as much as 2% larger by 2020 if it left—and as much as 4% larger after 10 to 15 years.

The administrator to BHS, the British department store group that is battling to stay in business, has received "around 50" expressions of interest for all or various parts of the retailer, a source with knowledge of the process said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Although the level of interest sounds encouraging, analysts see little prospect of a buyer emerging for the whole of BHS. They say the most likely scenario is that BHS's assets will be sold off piecemeal.

One of Britain's iconic tailoring brand Austin Reed has collapsed into administration, or insolvency, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk, The Economic Times reported. The 116-year-old tailoring brand, which once counted former British prime minister Winston Churchill and Elizabeth Taylor among its customers, appointed AlixPartners today to explore options for the business after it ran out of cash.