Europe

Swedish debt collector Intrum is asking a U.S. bankruptcy court to help reduce its debt, but will have to overcome a group of bondholders who allege it is misusing chapter 11, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. After Intrum filed for bankruptcy in Houston on Friday, creditors holding some of its bonds due in 2025 asked for the chapter 11 case to be dismissed. The bondholders say the company manufactured its bankruptcy venue by creating a U.S. affiliate last month, six days before seeking creditors’ votes on its restructuring plan, according to papers filed by the bondholders with the U.S.

The Swedish government does not plan to take a stake in battery maker Northvolt, Sweden's Minister for Energy, Business and Industry and Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch told Reuters on Tuesday. The statement echoed that of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson who has also said the government does not plan to invest in the cash-strapped battery maker. "There are huge investments happening in the green transition in Sweden whether or not the Northvolt project gets fully completed or not," Busch told Reuters.

Insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor has warned that higher wage bills and prospects for fewer interest rate cuts will keep U.K. company failures at high levels, as it revealed its own cost hit from the recent Budget, the Independent reported. The group said that it is set to face an extra £1.25 million a year from next April after the Chancellor last month announced moves to hike employers’ national insurance contributions. Begbies said it was “reviewing options to mitigate the impact where possible”.

Ireland-based clean hydrogen solutions developer Fusion Fuel Green Plc has filed for insolvency for its Portuguese subsidiary after a USD-33.5-million (EUR 31.6m) funding deal with investor Hydrogenial SA has failed to complete, RenewablesNow.com reported. As advised by the insolvency counsel after paperwork submission, Fusion Fuel has initiated a claim in Portugal against the investment firm and its principal, Norbert Bindner, for damages incurred due to Hydrogenial’s breach of their agreement, a press statement says.

In a still-evolving financial situation, hydrogen fuel cell pioneer Teco 2030 Is facing a financial collapse after a bankruptcy petition was filed yesterday against the parent company, Maritime-Executive.com reported. Earlier it had been reported that its manufacturing subsidiary was facing a bankruptcy petition and demands from the Norwegian Tax Authority after another of the company’s subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy two weeks ago.

Intrum, Europe's biggest debt collector, on Friday said that it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States in a bid to restructure its debt, 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 ($4.49 billion) at the end of September.

Greece plans to accelerate the repayment of billions of euros of bailout loans in the latest sign of the country’s economic reversal since it nearly fell out of the euro area more than a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. Athens will seek to repay at least €5 billion ($5.3 billion) in 2025, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a Bloomberg event on Monday. The obligations mature from 2033 to 2042. “We’ve been ruthlessly focused on fiscal discipline,” he said in Athens.

Swedish battery maker Northvolt has been discussing the possibility of bankruptcy protection in the United States as one of several options for the cash-strapped company to survive, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Northvolt has in recent months gone from being Europe's best shot at a home-grown electric vehicle battery champion to racing to stay afloat by slimming down, hobbled by production problems, the loss of a major customer and trouble raising more cash.

Altice France and a group of secured creditors ended their first round of discussions without reaching a deal over how to restructure the company’s €24.4 billion ($25.7 billion) pile of debt, according to a statement on Thursday, Bloomberg News reported. The discussions between the embattled French telecommunications firm and the steering committee of its secured lenders were about finding ways to cut the company’s leverage.

Just when Britain seemed to be moving beyond its inflation problem, the new government's spending splurge and the risk of a global trade war triggered by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's tariff plan are threatening to extend it, Reuters reported. British inflation peaked above 11% two years ago after the outbreak of the Ukraine war, the highest among the world's big rich economies. It then took longer to fall than in many other countries, in part because of a shortage of workers following Britain's exit from the European Union. No one expects another double-digit price leap.