Powerdale, once a stalwart in Belgium's electric vehicle charging infrastructure, has left hundreds, if not thousands, of its customers in the lurch following its bankruptcy last year, the Brussels Times reported. The repercussions are keenly felt as users find themselves unable to utilise the charging stations due to the failure of the brand's accompanying app. Reports from disgruntled users indicate that attempts to access the app have resulted in messages stating their accounts have been deactivated.
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Oxurion NV, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Leuven, announced on Dec. 28 that it has avoided bankruptcy by entering into a binding letter of intent (LOI) with Atlas Special Opportunities LLC (Atlas) and an addendum to the existing subscription agreement for convertible bonds with Atlas, AfternoonHeadlines.com reported.
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The Belgian National Bank chief’s term has yet to be renewed, potentially leaving the central bank without a leader early next year, Bloomberg News reported. Governor Pierre Wunsch’s mandate comes to an end Jan. 1 and “so far, the government has not announced a decision related to this mandate,” the institution’s spokesman said by e-mail on Wednesday. Wunsch, 56, has been at the central bank since 2011 and took the top job in 2019 when he was appointed for a five-year term.
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Under Belgian law, criminal and civil judges can impose a prohibition on both individuals and corporate entities to prevent them from performing certain management functions in a company (management prohibition) upon conviction or in the context of insolvency, Linklaters reported. In practice, however, these management prohibitions often remain a dead letter, as persons who are prohibited from taking up a directorship are still appointed directors due to a lack of monitoring of compliance with these prohibitions.
Belgium's FSMA regulator on Friday ordered Binance to cease offering any virtual currency services in the country, adding to pressure on the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Reuters reported. Binance, which was founded by Changpeng Zhao in Shanghai in 2017, has grown to dominate the crypto industry but also faces scrutiny from regulators keen to clamp down on money-laundering. It has consistently defended its business practices.
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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.
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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.
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