Europe

Construction was the worst-hit sector for insolvencies in the year to December 2024, new Insolvency Service figures show, Construction News reported. Some 4,032 building businesses become insolvent, accounting for 17 per cent of all such cases in England and Wales. The next worst-affected sectors were wholesale and retail (3,572), and accommodation and foodservice (3,464). Kelly Boorman, head of construction at accountancy firm RSM UK, said that the figures reflected the amount of debt burden and distress in the building supply chain.

The number of bankruptcies in the Netherlands stayed at the same level in January as it was in the previous month when corrected for court hearing days, NLTimes.com reported. Statistics Netherlands reported that the number of bankruptcies was below the same time as last year. There was a significant increase in the number of bankruptcies in 2024. Statistics Netherlands reported last month that almost 4,300 companies were declared bankrupt. That is an increase of 30 percent compared to 2023. Monthly figures can fluctuate.

Sandwich stalwart Pret A Manger has been hit with a winding up petition by a business water supplier over unpaid debts, City AM reported. According to the High Court filing system, Pret A Manger (Europe), a subsidiary of Pret Intermediate Company, has been named in a winding up petition by Castle Water, an independent business water supplier. The case was filed by the water company’s lawyers at Addleshaw Goddard on Thursday, with the Official Receiver noted as a third party. City AM understands that this is in regard to uncontested debt.

German eVTOL developer Lilium is facing another financial crisis as the company struggles to secure a critical funding package that was expected to stabilise its operations, Zag Daily reported. After announcing a €200 million rescue deal on Christmas Eve, Lilium has so far received only a fraction of the promised funds, leaving it unable to pay salaries and forcing it to suspend operations. With time running out, the company may be forced to file for insolvency if the remaining investment does not materialise.

British utility Thames Water lodged an appeal to the country's competition regulator on Friday, beginning a process to try to raise the prices it can charge customers for the next five years and improve its chances of survival, Reuters reported. Thames Water is waiting to hear whether the courts will approve a 3 billion pound ($3.77 billion) rescue deal to ward off nationalisation in the short term and give it time to deal with its financial problems, including debt of 18 billion pounds. Its future viability also depends on how much it can charge customers.

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he planned to impose tariffs on Canada and France over their digital services taxes on U.S. technology giants, which has been a long-standing irritant, Reuters reported. Canada, seeking to address the challenge of taxing digital giants like Google parent Alphabet and Amazon.com that can book their profits in low-tax countries, began imposing the tax in June last year. Trump tasked his economics team on Thursday with devising a plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on every country that levied duties on U.S. imports.

The eurozone economy grew a little in the final months of last year, a rosier reading than the stagnation previously estimated, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product increased 0.1% between September and December from the previous quarter, EU statistics agency Eurostat said Friday in new estimates for the currency area. Eurostat had previously said GDP was flat over the quarter. The weak growth isn’t a sign of robust health in the eurozone economy, however.