Europe

German automakers should not be afraid of competition from China, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday at the opening of Mercedes-Benz's first battery recycling plant, an investment he described as part of Germany's new industrial policy agenda, Reuters reported. "Some say that China can do much better with electric motors than us," Scholz said.

Europe's biggest debt collector, said on Friday that it will file for voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States as it seeks to restructure its own finances, Reuters reported. The company has struggled as the pandemic, an energy crisis and two-decade-high interest rates failed to unleash a wave of loan defaults, with concerns mounting over Intrum's net debt, which reached 49.4 billion Swedish crowns ($4.69 billion) at the end of June.

Scottish company insolvencies have declined by 16% since last year, but experts say overall volumes will remain high for some time to come, Scottish Financial News reported. There were a total of 73 company insolvencies registered in Scotland in September 2024, comprised of 48 CVLs, 18 compulsory liquidations and seven administrations. There were no CVAs or receivership appointments. Historically, compulsory liquidations were the most common type of company insolvency in Scotland. However, since April 2020, numbers of CVLs have remained higher than numbers of compulsory liquidations.

Northvolt AB is closing in on an about $300 million rescue package that includes debt and equity, buying time for the cash-strapped Swedish battery maker to stabilize production and line up longer-term financing, Bloomberg News reported. A combination of shareholders, lenders and customers are participating in the bridge funding, and the instruments vary among these groups. Discussions are in the final stages, though there remains some risk they can still fall apart.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is considering raising taxes levied on entrepreneurs when they sell their businesses, as part of her push to raise as much as £40 billion ($52 billion) to balance Britain’s budget, Bloomberg News reported. Britain’s finance minister is looking at cutting a capital gains tax easement known as business asset disposal relief in her spending plan on Oct. 30. The policy allows entrepreneurs to pay a reduced tax of 10% on profits they make from the sale of their companies, rather than the standard 20% levy for higher-rate taxpayers.

The Italian electric motorcycle maker Energica has officially declared that it is ceasing operations and entering bankruptcy proceedings, ending speculation about the company’s precarious financial situation, Electrek.co reported. After reducing its workforce by around 70% recently, among other measures to tighten its purse strings, the famed Italian electric motorcycle maker’s board made the decision to enter bankruptcy proceedings after its latest meeting this week.

The European Central Bank cut interest rates on Thursday for the third time in about four months, as inflation in the eurozone has cooled faster than expected and economic growth has been sluggish, the New York Times reported. Policymakers who set interest rates for the 20 countries that use the euro lowered their key rate by a quarter point, to 3.25 percent.

Germany’s ruling coalition will repeal a tax rule that limits the use of derivatives losses to offset profits on investments, according to a government member, Bloomberg News reported. “The restriction on offsetting gains with losses from derivatives and total wipe-outs is finally going to end,” Katja Hessel, a deputy finance minister, said in a post on X. The regulation was introduced by the previous German government in 2020. It restricts investors’ ability to use losses in some instruments to lower their tax bills on gains in other investments, a practice known as netting, in two ways.