Hopes were raised over the future of the Pontin's holiday camp brand today after administrators confirmed they had received 10 offers for the chain.

Deutsche Bank, the German financial giant, agreed to pay fines totalling $554m in order to avoid prosecution in the US over tax shelter advice it gave to wealthy investors.

London is the most expensive place to buy knock-off trainers, jeans and CDs, according to figures released today, with counterfeiters offering slimmer discounts than in other big cities around the world.

UK companies could damage the fragile economic recovery by using next month's rise in VAT to "mask" hikes in prices as they seek to protect profits from rising costs, a leading firm of accountants warned yesterday.

The high street delivered anaemic sales growth in November for the eighth successive month, which along with the recent snow has left retailers biting their nails over festive trading.

There were fears over the future of one of Britain's most iconic holiday brands today after Pontin's was put into administration.

It was a time before the British holidaymaker had even heard of the Costa del Sol, and when the package holiday abroad was a mere twinkle in the eye of a man called Vladimir Raitz who pioneered the idea of chartering planes and booking hotels en masse for the ordinary Briton.

Retailers predict "tough" trading conditions on the high street will continue into next year, after they posted a sixth consecutive month of anaemic sales growth in October.

One year after the company behind the Threshers chain collapsed into administration, fewer than a third of the stores are trading as off-licences.

Property services firm Connaught could owe more than twice the multimillion-pound debt originally thought after 50,000 missing invoices were discovered, administrators have said.

Speciality retail Group, the company behind the Suits You menswear chain, has collapsed into administration just eight months after a controversial insolvency procedure, leaving 350 jobs hanging in the balance.

Outlook So Suits You's operator, the Speciality Retail Group, is in administration. That this was pending has become one of the City's worst-kept secrets in recent days, so it's hardly a surprise. Now it will be up to restructuring specialist GA Europe to salvage something from the mess.

The chief financial officer of the tour operator TUI Travel has quit after a £117m accounting blunder forced the company to restate its annual results.

High street sales fell unexpectedly last month, reinforcing fears that shoppers are already reining in their spending ahead of the economically crucial festive period. It was the second consecutive monthly sales decline, with clothing and footwear stores suffering the most.