Denmark

Indonesia's PT Berlian Laju Tanker , the world's third-largest chemical shipper, hopes to restructure its $1.9 billion debt by the year-end and will switch its focus to niche liquid chemical and gas transport, its founder and chairman said in a rare media interview, The Chicago Tribune reported on a Reuters story. The country's leading oil and gas shipper defaulted on several debt instruments earlier this year and has been talking to creditors about restructuring its operations and finances.

Danish-owned National Irish Bank (NIB) will turn its attention to its head office after completing a round of cuts that will see it lay off one-quarter of its workers and shutting its retail operation, the Irish Times reported. NIB, owned by Danske Bank, said in June it intended to close its 27 branches in the Republic and seek 100 redundancies from its 442-strong workforce. Yesterday, the bank confirmed it intended to review its head office in the first quarter of next year and inform staff of its findings during the second three months of 2013.

Of all the many striking policy measures taken since the financial crisis, one of the most extraordinary has gone almost unremarked – the introduction of negative official interest rates by Denmark, the Financial Times reported. In an attempt to maintain its strict currency peg to the euro, the Danish central bank lowered its main deposit rate for banks – the certificate of deposit or CD rate – to -0.2 per cent last month. The Nationalbanken felt it had little choice.

The charge for bad loans at National Irish Bank will remain high for the remainder of the year before falling, the head of the Danish bank’s Republic of Ireland operations said, as the bank reported a pretax loss of €401 million for the first half of the year, the Irish Times reported. Loan impairments fell 7 per cent to €391 million for the first half, but NIB made a similar loss to the deficit posted for the first six months of 2011 as costs increased by 54 per cent to cover the closure of the bank’s 27 branches and laying off a further 100 staff.

Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas on Sunday dismissed as "speculation" a report in the Sunday Times that said the company was considering putting itself up for sale and had entered debt restructuring talks with its lenders, Reuters reported. The Sunday Times, which cited no sources for its information, said that Vestas' banks had given it an "ultimatum," and demanded that the company prepare a comprehensive financial restructuring plan.

Swiss steel and coal trader Carbofer General Trading (CGT) was declared bankrupt last month, officials in its home town Lugano said on Friday, shortly after its shipping branch Carbofer Maritime, Reuters reported. CGT, once a large player in the spot coal and steel trade, was declared bankrupt on May 16, the bankruptcy office of Lugano told Reuters, as market conditions worsened and financing froze up. Its Copenhagen-based shipping branch Carbofer Maritime Trading (CMT) was declared bankrupt about a month earlier, the Danish Sea and Maritime court said.

The problems facing the global shipping industry continued on Thursday as Danish oil tanker operator Torm postponed an equity rights issue as it tried to renegotiate its debt repayment schedule with banks, the Financial Times reported. The company, which is majority owned by the Greek Panayotides shipping family, also unveiled an unexpectedly deep third-quarter net loss of $70.4m. The worldwide oversupply of ships has pushed the industry into its worst financial crisis in decades, with earnings well below operating expenses in many markets pushing companies into heavy losses.

Denmark’s bank watchdog aims to complete its inspections of lenders at risk of insolvency by January, and expects most will fail its audit, Bloomberg reported. The Financial Supervisory Authority’s review covers lenders identified by the regulator as “risky” and “in seven out of 10 inspections, we insist on either higher writedowns or higher solvency requirements,” Ulrik Noedgaard, director general at the FSA, said in an interview.

The Danish government Thursday said that a political deal has been reached on new measures to support consolidation in the country's fragmented banking industry, passing into law a range of planned reforms proposed earlier August by Economic and Business Affairs Minister Brian Mikkelsen, Dow Jones reported. The reforms, which add to Denmark's earlier Bank Package 3 regulatory framework, aim first and foremost to pre-empt bank collapses by facilitating takeovers of troubled lenders, the minister said in a statement.

The Danish government is planning a new range of measures to support the country's banking sector, Minister of Economic and Business Affairs Brian Mikkelsen told reporters Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported. No decisions have yet been made, but political parties plan to soon meet again and will hopefully reach an agreement on the matter, Mr. Mikkelsen said. The measures will support consolidation and secure funding for troubled banks. A number of small banks face severe problems with funding, and large credit exposure to the ailing agriculture and real estate sectors, he said.