Hibu, the crisis-hit publisher of Yellow Pages, said it would halt repayments to its lenders as it waits for a restructure, warning shareholders that their holdings are likely to end up worthless, The Telegraph reported. The company, formerly known as Yell, has been crippled by the rapid rise of internet search engines such as Google and the debts it racked up during an acquisition spree overseas. Hibu’s lenders, to which it owes £2.3bn, are expecting a debt-for-equity swap, which will see creditors take over the company.

Punch Taverns said it was in talks to restructure its debt after the leased pub group posted a sharp drop in full-year profit, blaming Britain's wet summer and disruption caused by a major business overhaul, Reuters reported. Like many British pub companies, Punch was hit hard by the country's double-dip recession and is trying to reduce 2.1 billion pounds ($3.4 billion) of debt built up before the economic downturn. Punch said on Wednesday that the cost of servicing that debt was unsustainable and it was in discussions with major shareholders and other stakeholders over a restructuring.

One of the biggest puzzles facing the Bank of England is why British labor productivity has been so poor since the financial crisis, The Wall Street Journal The Source blog reported. This matters, because it suggests the economy has little capacity to grow before inflation becomes a concern. So far, the BOE has largely shrugged off the productivity puzzle as an anomaly. It could be that productivity growth has only apparently been poor because GDP growth has been under-reported. That’s because of accounting identities: the U.K.

Manganese Bronze, maker of London's black taxi, said it is set to appoint administrators after failing to secure funding needed to survive, putting hundreds of British jobs at risk, Reuters reported. Manganese Bronze, whose taxis have been on British streets since 1948, had been in talks with its largest shareholders, including China's Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, to secure a last-minute bailout. "The issue here was not a lack of opportunity around the quantum of support being offered," Chief Executive John Russell told Reuters on Monday.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through London on Saturday calling for an end to public spending cuts and tax rises launched by a government they accuse of elitism and ignorance about the plight of recession-hit voters, Reuters reported. Blowing horns and whistles, demonstrators streamed past the Houses of Parliament behind a banner declaring "Austerity is Failing", and called on Prime Minister David Cameron to do more to revive Britain's struggling economy.

Britain and other European countries have deep concerns about a banking union in the euro zone, although there are signs of a compromise to limit the powers of the European Central Bank (ECB) in countries outside the euro, a UK minister told Reuters. Britain's financial services minister Greg Clark said in an interview on Tuesday that efforts to help the 17-nation euro zone and its banks recover from economic crisis must not come at the expense of the wider European Union market, which includes countries like Britain and Sweden that do not use the euro.

Failing insurers will be allowed to go bust under a new British regulatory regime which will focus on limiting the impact on customers, one of the system's watchdogs said on Monday, Reuters reported. The Prudential Regulatory Authority, a Bank of England unit whose job from next year is to keep the financial system stable, "will not seek to operate a zero-failure regime," it said in a document setting out its approach. "The PRA will seek to ensure that any insurers that fail do so in a way that avoids significant adverse effects on policyholders," it added.

The U.K.'s leading supermarkets, in the midst of a double-dip recession and sluggish growth, are desperately searching for a way forward, The Wall Street Journal reported. Many of these companies have built their brands on the backs of the country's middle-classes. But this swathe of society, caught between recession-proof top earners and low-income households, has come to be described as the "squeezed middle" in modern-day, austerity Britain.

British clean technology firm Ceres Power Holdings Plc said it has not been able to secure the funds it needs to run its operations and that it would continue to explore options, including a wind down of the business, Reuters reported. Ceres said the other options it was looking at included a sale of the business or cancellation of its listing. The company has faced repeated delays related to the launch of its combined heat and power (CHP) energy efficient boiler as a result of technical issues with the product.

The Irish division of the troubled JJB Sports chain is on the block following the appointment of a provisional liquidator Monday, the Irish Times reported. In Britain, JJB’s rival, Sports Direct, is buying 20 of its stores, the brand and website from administrators KPMG, which the company appointed after failing to find a buyer. Yesterday, the High Court appointed Kieran Wallace of KPMG’s Dublin office as provisional liquidator to JJB Sports in Ireland following a petition from the company’s directors.