The threat of big losses for Royal Bank of Scotland and other banks may help British subprime lender Cattles steer clear of administration as restructuring talks drag on, people close to the discussions said, Reuters reported. Restructuring negotiations at the Hull-based firm, crippled by bad loans and accountancy problems, were derailed last week when a group of bondholders walked away, raising doubts over the chances of reaching a deal on its 2.7 billion pound ($4.2 billion) debt pile.

Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks is launching another bid to keep hold of the Premier League club by securing financing from a private equity company which would share control with him, the Associated Press reported. Hicks along with co-owner George Gillett Jr. had put the club up for sale in April, saying they lacked the funding to take Liverpool forward, on and off the pitch, due to its debt of 237 million pounds ($370 million). But the lack of formal offers for the 18-time English champions has led to the Texan putting together his own financing deal.

Total costs incurred by the administration of Halliwells have reached £1.13m, according to figures contained within the first joint administrators' report, LegalWeek.com reported. The report, drawn up by BDO partners and joint administrators Dermot Power and Shay Bannon, shows that fees of £524,354 have been charged by the administrators, of which just £30,000 has so far been received. A further total of £606,082 relates to expenses incurred by the administrators, including £585,682 spent on legal fees for CMS Cameron McKenna and counsel fees of £19,043.

A coffee shop magnate who helped launch the careers of KT Tunstall and Amy Macdonald has been banned from running a company for six years, the Daily Record reported. Beanscene founder Gordon Richardson, 48, was struck offlast week after an investigation by the government's Insolvency Service. The two-year probe was launched after Beanscene went bust in July 2008 with debts of £3.7million. Last week Richardson was censured by the Insolvency Service for his role in the collapse of the coffee chain giant.

Cattles, which specialises in loans to people with poor credit histories, faces a crunch week of talks with its lenders this week as the stricken firm struggles to avoid insolvency, The Guardian reported. The restructuring firm Zolfo Cooper has been lined up as administrator if the talks fail, although sources insisted that a consensual agreement between the parties is still possible. As many as 3,000 jobs could be threatened if the firm goes under.

Tele Columbus GmbH, a German cable company operator, will restructure €1 billion ($1.2 billion) of loans in a U.K. court, according to three people familiar with the situation, Bloomberg reported. The company, controlled by Dusseldorf, Germany-based restructuring specialist Nikolaus & Co., will attend a first court hearing on Sept. 22 to reduce its debt burden in a so- called scheme of arrangement procedure, said the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions are private. An official at the High Court of London Chancery Division confirmed the hearing date.

The U.K. government set out proposals Thursday for a new special administration regime to more effectively handle investment bank insolvencies to minimize the impact on financial stability, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The scheme is designed to handle the insolvency of failing banks that aren't put into the U.K.'s existing special resolution regime, developed to ensure a systemically-important bank is rescued or sold off very quickly to avoid financial contagion.

The administrators of U.K. social housing maintenance firm Connaught PLC Monday announced it is axing a further 400 jobs at the company, taking the toll of recent layoffs to 1,100, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Administrator KPMG also said it has transferred the contractual relationships for eight of Connaught's customers to social housing and maintenance provider Mears Group PLC.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Goldman Sachs as the investment bank was today handed down a multimillion-pound fine by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), LegalWeek reported. The regulator has ordered the investment banking giant to pay £17.5m as a penalty for neglecting to inform it that its executive director Fabrice Toure was subject to a fraud investigation by US financial authorities when he became an FSA-approved person upon relocating to the UK in 2008.