Iceland's business lobby said on Tuesday it had seen the outline of a draft deal on repaying Britain and the Netherlands and that it was much improved from one rejected by voters in March, Reuters reported. The head of the business lobby spoke after an Icelandic television station reported that a draft deal had been reached which would involve Iceland repaying 40-60 billion Icelandic crowns ($356-533 million) to the British and Dutch.

Insolvent U.K. maintenance and building services group Rok PLC's administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers Tuesday announced a further 1,800 layoffs, in the firm's maintenance and improvements division, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. PwC said its construction and social housing division in England remains unaffected as it continues to pursue a sale of this part of the business.

Nearly a fifth of jobs at maintenance and building services group Rok PLC are to go, after the company followed peer Connaught PLC in to administration following a prolonged spell of plunging profits amid tough trading conditions, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Rok's administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers late Wednesday announced 711 job losses at the firm, which employs about 3,800 people, in areas where there was no work to be carried out or where there was "little or no interest" from prospective buyers.

British building and social housing repairs firm Rok Plc went into administration on Monday, two months after bigger rival Connaught collapsed, Reuters reported. Rok has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as administrator, the auditor said on Monday, and trading in its shares has been suspended. PricewaterhouseCoopers had been working with Rok's banks ahead of loan refinancing talks.

The chancellor, George Osborne, came under fire today from MPs on the Treasury select committee, charged with "misleading the public" for claiming the UK was near bankruptcy in the weeks after he took office, The Guardian reported. He was accused of using inflammatory language to justify massive public spending cuts. The committee chairman, Tory MP Andrew Tyrie, said Osborne's claim that Britain had been "on the brink of bankruptcy" was "a bit over the top".

Halliwells' former partners are set to face multiple claims after the firm's joint administrators at BDO sent out details of potential proceedings, Legal Week reported. BDO administrator Dermot Power sent a letter last week (26 October), warning the ex-partners that they face proceedings relating to a number of claims including repayment of overdrawings, unpaid capital contributions, and breach of duty.

English club Portsmouth has exited bankruptcy protection and was bought Sunday by three businessmen, including former owner Balram Chainrai, the Canadian Press reported. The League Championship club had said it was on the verge of liquidation. However, a day after resolving a claim for 2.2 million pounds (C$3.54 million) by former owner Sacha Gaydamak, Portsmouth announced that its immediate future is secure.

The development of a 52-story tower at One Blackfriars Road, London, was placed in administration by Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, which is reorganizing its real-estate portfolio, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. RBS and a group of other banks lent a total of GBP63 million for the development, according to a person familiar with the situation. The developer defaulted on the loan after negotiations for a restructuring in June. A sale of the site is the most likely outcome, the person added. If the project comes to the market, it could fetch as much as GBP150 million.

The debt-strapped U.K. government announced an 8% cut in its military budget, undertaking a delicate attempt at cutting personnel and military hardware without jeopardizing the country's place among the world's biggest military powers, The Wall Street Journal reported. The cuts announced Tuesday by British Prime Minister David Cameron mark the Ministry of Defence's biggest one-off reduction since the dawn of the Cold War.

Nortel Networks Corp. Thursday postponed a hearing on the appointment of a mediator to help broker an end to disputes over the cash raised in the liquidation of its global telecommunications equipment business, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Lawyers for U.K. retirees whose pensions are in jeopardy due to Nortel's bankruptcy have petitioned to be part of the mediation, and the company is in talks with them, said James Bromley, attorney for Nortel. The Toronto company and its creditors want to summon Layn R.