Lisa Osofsky, director of the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office, will leave her job in August 2023 after completing her five-year tenure with the white-collar crime prosecuting agency, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.K. attorney general’s office will start its search for her successor immediately, the person said in an email, adding that Ms. Osofsky will remain in her job for a short period after her tenure ends if needed. The leadership of the SFO by Ms. Osofsky, a former U.S.
Resources Per Country
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- Austria
- Belarus
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- Czech Republic
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- Finland
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- Gibraltar
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- Moldova
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Russia will allow Belarus to postpone debt payments totalling $1.4 billion for 10 years, while also setting a fixed interest rate, according to draft laws approved by Russian lower house of parliament, or Duma, on Tuesday, Reuters reported. At the start of the year, Belarus has asked Russia to restructure and refinance Minsk's 2022 debt obligations and Moscow would move all payments, redemptions and debt servicing due between March 2022 and April 2023 to 2028-2033, Timur Maksimov, Russian deputy finance minister, told Duma.
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Joules Group Plc is set to file for insolvency after the British retailer failed to secure bridge financing or raise equity, putting around 1,600 jobs at risk, Bloomberg News reported. The clothing chain, known for its colorful coats and Wellington boots, said it will appoint Interpath Advisory as administrators to protect the interest of creditors. Shares have been suspended. Joules warned last week that it would struggle to repay a £5 million ($5.9 million) loan due at the end of this month amid weaker-than-expected sales and reduced cash flow.
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The French government, which plans to retake full ownership of Electricite de France SA, has no plan to subsequently dismantle the utility after the €9.7 billion ($10 billion) buyout, according to the Finance Ministry, Bloomberg News reported. The state, which already owns 84% of the nuclear giant, wants the company to keep growing its output of renewable energy alongside building new nuclear plants, Finance Ministry officials said at a press briefing on Monday. Earlier, a lawmaker had said the government was still pursuing a project to spin off minority stakes in some of EDF’s activities.
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Germany will nationalise gas importer Sefe, formerly known as Gazprom Germania, the economy ministry said on Monday, in a move to protect it from bankruptcy and force Russia out of the company, Reuters reported. Sefe was dropped by Russia's Gazprom earlier this year and put under German state trusteeship. It has since received close to 10 billion euros ($10.31 billion) in state-backed credit lines.
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A receiver has been appointed to Altada Technology Solutions, the troubled Cork-based data management and artificial intelligence company led by husband and wife duo Allan Beechinor and Niamh Parker, the Irish Times reported. Documents filed with the Companies Registration Office indicate that Grattan Boylan, Alan Bruce, Lynn Bruce and Noreen Gallagher – who provided debt finance to the company in September – have appointed Nicholas O’Dwyer, a partner in Grant Thornton as receiver to Altada after months of speculation about its future.
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The U.K. economy contracted in the three months through September, as high energy prices and rising interest rates mark the beginning of what policy makers expect will be a long-lasting recession, part of a downturn that is likely to affect much of Europe in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported. The country’s gross domestic product was 0.7% lower on an annualized basis in the third quarter compared with the three months through June, the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics said Friday.
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Norway’s DOF Group, which has a fleet of more than 60 offshore service vessels, now faces either a forced restructuring under the Norwegian Reconstruction Act, or bankruptcy, MarineLog reported. At an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) today, the company’s shareholders rejected acceptance of a proposed consensual restructuring that had been agreed to by the company’s major creditors. Prior to the EGM, the shareholders were sent a letter from the creditors that noted that they hold claims against the company equivalent to approximately NOK 23 billion (about $2.3 billion).
The low profitability of RH Entertainment Ltd’s summer 2022 festivals and the resulting turnover has driven the company into corporate restructuring, Chaoszine reported. On 20 October 2022, the District Court commenced restructuring proceedings against RH Entertainment Ltd. “The restructuring proceedings involved issues that we could not foresee. We had to pay practically all our bills in advance, both at the filing stage and after the restructuring proceedings started.
Malta's Pre-Insolvency Bill (‘the Bill’) is at its second reading in Parliament, Lexology reported. The Bill is being proposed as an Act to partially transpose EU Directive 2019/1023 (‘the Directive’) on preventive restructuring frameworks, on discharge of debt and disqualifications, and on measures to increase the efficiency of procedures concerning restructuring, insolvency and discharge of debt. In short, new legal tools are being provided in a bid to rescue viable businesses in distress from entering into a state of insolvency.