The Serious Fraud Office is expected to receive significant funding from the UK Treasury to help in its investigation into Barclays‘ emergency fundraising five years ago, according to the Financial Times.

Property consultant Savills said its research shows almost 2,000 stores have in Britain have been affected by the fall of retailers into administration this year, The Times unveiled.

British advertising giant WPP has lost its crown as the world’s biggest agency after Publicis and Omnicom confirmed they will merge, The Telegraph said.

Rio Tinto has disposed of its controlling stake in the Northparkes copper-gold mine in the Australian state of New South Wales to China Molybdenum for $820m in an effort to cut debt and protect its single-A credit rating, the Financial Times reported.

Siemens will give chief executive Peter Loscher the boot this week after a string of profit warnings and a bitter boardroom power struggle, The Times revealed.

Sports Direct’s 20,000 part-time workforce are employed on zero-hour contracts, meaning they do not know how many hours they will work each week and have no holiday or sick pay, The Guardian reported.

Senior economist Scott Corfe has warned Chancellor George Osborne should be braced for slowing growth after the next general election as the Centre for Economics and Business Research revised its 2013 growth forecast to 1.0%, according to The Independent.