Belgian cryptocurrency lending platform Bit4You has suspended its operations after one of its service providers, CoinLoan, was declared insolvent by a court in Estonia, CoinDesk.com reported. Bit4You learned of CoinLoan's insolvency on April 24, and that it no longer has necessary registration as a digital asset custodian, the lender said in a blog post on Wednesday. There has yet to be any indication that the funds held with CoinLoan will not be recovered, Bit4You added.
Read more
Belgium
Bankruptcies across Belgium increased by more than 9% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2022, with Flanders registering a record number of companies declaring themselves insolvent, the Brussels Times reported. According to a study published on Monday by market analysis firm Graydon Creditsafe, which was reported on by l'Echo, a total of 2,669 Belgian businesses declared themselves bankrupt in the first quarter of 2023 — 9.43% more than over the same period in 2022. Among these businesses, a disproportionate number were based in Flanders.
The last Belgian locations of the international cash-and-carry store Makro will close their doors forever on Friday, RTL Info reports, the Brussels Times reported. In total, 1,300 employees will lose their jobs. The Makro group has been teetering on the verge of bankruptcy for many months. Following the legal reorganization in June, all of the company’s real estate assets were transferred to German rival Metro. Metro was recently bought out by Dutch retail group Sligro, saving nine out of eleven of the Makro locations and 500 jobs.
Workers walked off the job in Greece and Belgium on Wednesday during nationwide strikes against increasing consumer prices, disrupting transportation, forcing flight cancellations and shutting down public services in the latest European protests over the rising cost of living, the Associated Press reported. In Greece, where workers were holding a 24-hour general strike, thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki.
According to the latest data from Statbel, 599 enterprises were declared bankrupt in Belgium in March 2021, the Brussels Times reported. March’s bankruptcies resulted in 1,445 job losses, which includes 916 full-time positions, 296 part-time jobs and 233 salaried employers. The sectors with the highest numbers of bankruptcies were transportation and other service activities, plus 142 losses in construction, 114 in wholesale and retail trade and 89 in accommodation and food service activities.
Read more
On Friday, 26 March 2021, the Belgian Insolvency Law was amended with the introduction of a pre-packaged insolvency procedure, allowing the debtor to discretely prepare for judicial reorganisation proceedings under the supervision of a judicial administrator, according to an analysis on JDSupra.com. Other noteworthy changes include (i) a lower threshold for the opening of judicial reorganisation proceedings, and (ii) the more flexible appointment of judicial administrators.
Read more
Lawyers representing defunct Belgian airline ChallengeAir moved on Friday to seize Air Namibia’s headquarters after the state carrier failed to honour a 10 million euro ($12.14 million) settlement agreement reached last month to save it from liquidation, Reuters reported. Air Namibia survived liquidation attempts by creditor ChallengeAir SA in January when the two firms reached the settlement agreement minutes before liquidation proceedings were due to kick off.
Read more
444 businesses declared bankruptcy in Belgium last month, resulting in the loss of 1,002 jobs according to the latest figures from Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, the Brussels Times reported. Of those jobs, 629 were full-time, 209 were part-time, and 164 were employers. In terms of a regional breakdown, the majority of bankruptcies came from Flanders with 219, followed by Wallonia with 136 and 89 in Brussels. This more or less reflects the variance in the number of overall businesses in each region.
Read more
Belgian tax authorities and National Social Security Office, ONSS, have agreed, for the moment, not to declare businesses that are too heavily indebted bankrupt, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told the Chamber’s Economic Affairs Commission this week, the Brussels Times reported. A moratorium on bankruptcies ended on Monday and Parliament is yet to approve a new bill on the judicial reorganisation procedure. Amendments to a text prepared by the Government were submitted only on Friday.
The board of the tour operator Neckermann, which runs a chain of travel agents across Belgium, has given itself until 22 February to solve its cash problems or declare bankruptcy, the Brussels Times reported. The deadline is a last-ditch effort to save the company, and the jobs of its 150 employees. In 2019 Neckermann Belgium was saved from the brink of bankruptcy after the collapse of the British parent company Thomas Cook when 62 of the 91 branches were taken over by Spanish tour company Wamos and rebranded as Neckermann.